What are we talking about when we refer to "internet television"? Well, plain and simple, to television distributed over the internet. Let's not confuse it with Web TV.
Internet television allows users to choose the program they want to watch and when and where they want to watch it. How? Browsing through an archive of digitized programs or choosing a chain, to see it live, among a directory of possible options.
The common ways of watching television over the Internet are "streaming" using a media player or downloading the program from a computer. In the future, computer and television will be fully integrated, with which navigation will be done through a remote control. We are going to compare several of the options to watch TV online, some not available in Spain yet.
Apple TV, the video store of the Mac world
Apple TV is the new generation of digital receivers from the Cupertino company. It allows you to watch movies and television shows or watch your own material stored on your computer or from other sources such as iTunes Store, Netflix, YouTube, Flickr or MobileMe, even in high definition.
Apple TV costs 119 euros in Spain and connects to television via HDMI and to the internet via Wifi or Ethernet. Allows you to rent HD movies from the Apple store. The films are rented for a month, but if the viewing begins, the term is reduced to 48 hours, after which they disappear from the library.
The rental price ranges from 0,99 euros to 4,99 euros, with one euro more if high definition is chosen. There is no monthly fee: you pay for what you consume. Apple TV is not just a video store with paid content. It also allows access to YouTube, photos from Flickr or saved in Mobile Me, podcasts and hundreds of internet radio stations.
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Google TV, seeking to consolidate the strength of the search engine
The concept of "television" is also modified with the new features that will be proposed by this new intelligent platform developed on the Android operating system that aims to combine "the best of television and the Internet" and offer "true television on demand".
Google TV is committed, after many market studies, to a full-screen television experience without the URL bar, tabs and the rest of the elements of the browsers. Its main objective is to offer online videos, not to browse web pages. Google TV has content derived from Hulu, in addition to Amazon VOD and Netflix, which are pay sites and offer a huge library of ad-free content.
Iplayer will soon be seen online worldwide
The BBC iPlayer allows you to watch almost all the BBC programs broadcast in the previous seven days through any of its channels. Their motto is "We work so you don't miss out on the unmissable." His offer: a million videos a week.
No television channel in the world offers more on the web than the BBC. With a territorial limitation: the Iplayer is only operational in the United Kingdom. In other countries only the news of the day works. It is planned that in 2011 it will go global and reach the whole world.
Since 2009 the Iplayer is an option that is served on English televisions "on demand". The project has been financed by the canon that the English pay to watch television (145,50 pounds per year). The internationalization of the Iplayer will generate new income for the BBC.
Hulu: Innovation on TV
The American and private equivalent of Iplayer is Hulu, a website that allows you to watch, mainly, streaming video of programs, tvmovies and series from the NBC, Fox and ABC networks. Hulu TV, like Iplayer, has territorial limitations and is accessible only to viewers - netizens from the United States.
Hulu has 44 million users at the moment, more than double that in 2009. In October 900 million movies were offered in streaming. It is growing at a dizzying rate. 70% of users are under 49 years of age. Twitter and Facebook are increasingly being used as real-time communication tools. Its future also goes through becoming an international service. It is maintained thanks to online advertising.
Netflix, the world's leading online video store
Netflix offers streaming images on demand. It was born in 1997, as a flat-rate mail-order video store that allowed you to rent DVDs and Blu-Rays in the United States and Canada. In 2009 it offered 100.000 titles on DVD and already had ten million subscribers.
Netflix is the undisputed leader in North America in premium entertainment and has grown in subscribers by 78% and in revenue by 54% in the last two years. He recently signed a five-year, $ 200 million a year deal with Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate.
Source: vertele.com