What is Internet TV?

Over the years,the only ways to watch television were through over-the-air broadcasts and cable signals. With broadcast TV, an antenna picks up radio waves to transmit pictures and sound to your television set. With cable TV, wires connect to a set-top box or to your TV itself. These wires run from your house to the nearest cable TV station, which acts as one big antenna. New technology can change the way we receive news and entertainment, though. In our last article we discussed one of the technologies, Internet Protocol Television which is most of the time confused with the delivery of television over internet. What is Internet TV?

Different Forms Of Television

What is Internet TV?
Internet television (Internet TV) is the process of broadcasting or delivering televised content to end user computing devices over the Internet. Internet TV makes it possible to view the same television channels on an Internet-enabled device rather than cable, satellite, antenna or other conventional telecasting technologies.Internet television is also known as Web television.

Internet TV generally delivers the same televised content as live streaming content on end-user devices. It is typically viewed through websites, Web applications and mobile applications that directly connect to a backend facility where televised content is converted into Internet packets and sent over the network. The content is then decoded by the recipient device and is displayed on the device browser or application. Over a good Internet connection and using a supported device, the Internet TV experience is similar to normal cable/dish television broadcasting.

How Does it Work?

Simply put, Internet TV works by connecting an Internet-enabled device to the TV and streaming video content from select Internet sites through the device onto the TV. Some TVs are already Internet-enabled and do not require the addition of a separate device.

The most basic connection, and probably the one that offers the most variety, is to actually connect a computer to the TV. Most of the recent computers on the market have some advanced functionality that makes this relatively easy, even allowing the connections to be made wirelessly over the home's Wi-Fi network.

Internet TV Devices

Using the computer this way, however, ties up much of its functionality for other purposes, as running these programs and streaming content requires a significant amount of processing. Other than the option of purchasing a computer specifically for this purpose or selecting an Internet-enabled TV, the other devices that allow users to access the Internet and stream content on the TV include those that have either been developed specifically for this purpose or regular home entertainment devices that have had this functionality added. These include game consoles, DVRs, and Blu-ray or DVD players.

How is it different from Internet Protocol Television?

Internet Protocol Television or IPTV is a technology that allows television services to be delivered over a proprietary broadband packet data network using the internet protocol suite.Internet TV on the other hand is a television broadcast service distributed over the internet.

Although both rely on the same core technologies, their approaches in delivering IP based video differ in the following ways:
1. Geographical Reach
IPTV is based on networks frequently owned and controlled by telecom operators, and as such reach only the subscriber base which has access to the operator network. Internet television is, however, available anywhere where broadband internet access is available.

2. Different Platforms
Internet TV leverages the public Internet to deliver video content to end users where as  IPTV uses secure dedicated private networks to deliver video content to consumers. These private networks are managed, dimensioned and operated by service provider.

3. Quality of Service
Services running over the internet, such as Internet TV, are best effort services implying that there is no quality guarantee as to the final deliverable, the TV service. This is because packets running over the internet may somehow be lost or corrupted making disassembly and interpretation impossible.
An IPTV service on the other hand is delivered over a networking infrastructure, which is typically owned by the service provider. Owning the networking infrastructure allows telecom operators to engineer their systems to support the end-to-end delivery of high quality video.

4. Service Access

A digital set-top box is generally used to access and decode the video content delivered via an IPTV system whereas a PC is nearly always used to access Internet TV services. Since the internet is more open than a propriety network, the dedicated home computer may also require digital rights management certification in order to ensure compliance with copyright laws. In the IPTV service case copyright laws are handled during the contract negotiations between the operator and the media company providing the material.

5. User Charges
A significant percentage of video content delivered over the public Internet is available to consumers free of charge. IPTV services on other hand are provided for a fee which could be a monthly subscription and which could include other bundled offerings like Voice services.

6. Media Content
In the past, a good share of Internet TV video content was user generated. Today user generated content falls under the term of Web TV while Internet TV is similar to a classical broadcast service but through the internet. IPTV on the other hand has always distributed traditional television shows and movies supplied principally by the established media companies.

Internet TV could eventually change the way we get our news and entertainment. People who are enthusiastic and knowledgeable about certain subjects but don't have a contract with a major network can produce their own shows if they have the right technology. Do you have a question? Feel free to get in touch with us and we will be glad to advise further. Remember to Read, Learn and Share.