Internet TV IPTV stands for Internet protocol television which many people prefer to call Internet personalized television. ABC's World News program was the very first television program to be broadcast over the Internet in 1994.

If you never heard of IPTV, you are not alone as many people do not know what it is, even though they might already have experienced a taste of what it is. In simple terms, it is a television service that users subscribe to so that they can receive television shows on their TV that is connected to an Internet protocol network via a broadband or DSL connection. Most people have digital or satellite television now and have the ability to watch videos on demand. The cable or satellite company provides a list of videos that the user can choose to watch. The movie will begin to play when the user selects it. It is called video on demand because the consumer gets to select when they want to watch the movie, unlike with regular network television where the viewer doesn't get to decide when they will watch a program. The viewer must watch the program when the network airs it or must make provisions to video tape or TiVo the show to watch at a later date. Video on demand is a tiny taste of what internet tv is about, but it is so much more than that.

internet tv programming combines video, data and voice services and while this is not a new idea, it is finally and idea that is ready to go viral. Now that technology is moving forward with leaps and bounds, providing a service fusing all three into one service is a reality. Broadband and DSL provide a high speed pipe through which the data can be sent. In the past internet access was very slow and could not reasonably transmit audio and video in a quick enough way to be beneficial. Technological advances with broadband and DSL have changed the scope of what is possible. Subscribers to web tv would have to have a box attached to their broadband or DSL Internet connection so that the programming can be received via the television. The box is similar to those that are installed by cable companies.

The term IPTV was coined in 1995 by a company called Precept Software. The company engineered and created a software application that could transfer audio and video over the internet using an Internet Protocol. The application was designed to offer distance training solutions for businesses. Precept Software was acquired Cisco Systems in 1998. Cisco was looking to integrate streaming video with network management technology to create a network platform for delivering high-quality video over IP. Cisco still owns the rights to the IPTV trademark, and is considered a big palyer in the internet tv arena.

Audionet is an Internet radio company that began broadcasting news content from several television stations in 1998 featuring continuous live Internet feeds. Audionet claims to be the very first company broadcasting continuous web casts. Today, Audionet carries programming from over 85 television stations along with full length music current music releases and catalogs of past releases. Audionet has many users from other countries.

Shortly thereafter other companies jumped into broadcasting continuous live web casts with content from local television stations. Many of these companies offer programming from other countries which has been fairly successful. Countries such as China and India do not have the infrastructure to support cable so they are banking on the success of internet tv.

The main feature of internet tv is the interactive capabilities that will be available to subscribers. It will be different from cable programming because with cable, the subscribers are forced to accept the programming that the cable companies provide. With web tv, subscribers will be able to select the programming that they want. For example, the viewer will be able to watch programming based upon subject title or the actor's name. The video will be overlaid with graphics, text and audio, so if the viewer chooses they will be able to look up information such as sports stats on the player or team that they are watching or can find out past acting credits of actor they are watching.

Online TV will be like TiVo because the viewer will be able to record programming and will have the ability to pause live action, fast-forward and rewind. If a subscriber can set it up so that they receive incoming e-mail and instant messages over the television. Their caller0ID can be displayed on the television too. The viewer will be able to watch Online TV as picture in picture, so they can surf the Internet or watch another channel while still watching the original programming in the small picture in picture on screen.

The possibilities of what web TV can offer subscribers are endless. If a subscriber is running late, with a cell phone or PDA he can call his I.P TV and tell it to record the baseball game that he won't be home to see. If your are watching a cooking show, the viewer can dash off an email to the chef. Subscribers will be able to order the clothing that their favorite actors are wearing on TV, and all from the comfort of their living room sofa or recliner.

Web TV is currently in the testing phase in the United States. There are some kinks that need to be worked out as to how the delivery system works. To be a successful product, the broadband infrastructure must be in place to meet the demands of the subscriber. If a television show breaks up during transmission because the pipeline isn't large enough to accept all of the data that needs to get through, the subscribers are not going to keep paying for the service.

European telephone and internet companies are offering IPTV subscriptions now, and the subscriber rate is rising. It is estimates that there will be over 50,000,000 households subscribing to IPTV by the year 2010. Will you be one of them?