Richard Halton, the director of Internet TV programmes at the BBC, has reignited a discussion which appears to come and go on numerous occasions, i.e. IPTV. Internet TV is something which many people believe will be the main focus of the worldwide broadband market in the years ahead although unfortunately take up in the short term has been impacted by technological limitations in the UK.
While IPTV is far more popular outside of the UK than within the UK, but still representing less than 10% of global broadband connection numbers, there are hopes that the UK market will develop in line with the introduction of a nationwide fibre-optic superfast broadband network. The effective sidelining of the Tiscali TV online operation leaves British Telecom as the only recognised IPTV provider in the UK although market penetration for BT is still very low in this area. There is no doubt that IPTV will at some stage replace many traditional TV services in the UK and bring media and Internet companies much close together, but when will it happen?
Content providers and program makers will be vital cogs in the wheel of IPTV in the future, and with the likes of Virgin Media and Sky TV holding many of the ace cards at the moment it is very much down to these two operations and BT as to when there will be a major play for IPTV in the UK. Until the big players in the UK decide to invest significant money in this arena it is unlikely it will take off although we await further developments with bated breath.