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Internet TV/video online as a phenomenon is not only here to stay, but it is the way forward for the home entertainment industry. The internet is the new battleground for the entertainment business and unless it finds the way to get onboard quickly it will soon lose out, as it did for many years through illegal music download sites. Minutes after a big new show such as LOST or HEROES is broadcast in one country it is pirated and available to the rest of the world on the internet in almost broadcast quality download. Fans who don't want to wait for the show to come to their country are willing to illegally download the show and discs of such bootleg copies are then widely distributed.

There is a huge demand out there for immediate access to shows now on and to old shows which are not available or come in expensively packaged box sets. Already the satellite and cable channels are offering extra channels that run one hour later or show the most popular shows several times a week in order to accommodate people's busy lives. The internet is the only currently viable system for providing the next step, television that people pick and choose at the time that suits them. You want to watch that latest show as it airs? You will be able to. You missed it by two minutes? Download and watch it now. You want to see the episode of that obscure fantasy show that you were watching when you were 11 and that's been haunting you ever since? Here it is. Absolute freedom of entertainment.

As download speeds increase the idea of centralised data warehouses giving unlimited access to TV shows and films whenever the viewer wants (at a cost of course) will become more and more attractive and this online viewing on demand system is now an inevitability. Many networks already offer a limited choice of shows online to viewers in their own countries, but it is also inevitable that they will eventually have to open those offers out worldwide in order to close the gap on the internet pirates.
The online science fiction show SANCTUARY (www.sanctuaryforall.com) is an early experiment in providing an internet only TV experience and many film producers are now offering downloads of the movie as an alternative to buying the DVD.

Most people are open to paying a reasonable price for good quality content and a monthly fee to access a library of films and TV shows will soon take the place of the extensive video and DVD collections that clutter up many homes or the wide (and yet still limited) offerings of a cable/satellite supplier. The only surprise is that it hasn't already happened. Rights issues and advertising revenue replacement questions will have to be resolved first, but once they are the advances will be rapid.

Once these libraries go online, they will provide competition for the video storage services of the likes of YouTube. The possibility of uploading family holiday videos etc to a central point and letting family and friends tune in is irresistible and the human need to creative expression (no matter how embarrassing) is a genie that has escaped from the lamp onto the internet and will never be put back again. Integrating these services into the mainstream catalogues provided by networks will break the current near monopoly of the likes of YouTube for home-produced video projects. The convenience of accessing paid and free TV at the same time will likely be too much for the independents, but they have always found ways on exploiting avenues that the more staid big network providers haven't thought of.

Online TV as a view whatever you want whenever you want' is the inevitable shape of our home entertainment future. The only question really is who's going to get there first.

Learn more about this author, Darren Humphries.
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