The only way internet TV is going to catch on is for broadband connections to really become broadband with consistant high speeds and no traffic limitations (you can hardly watch video if you are restricted to 2GB of downloads per month) and if there is actually something of value to watch.

Niche markets will grow, there's an excellent sport website called sportuk.tv that provides minority sports online that don't make it to TV. Currently they are showing English Premier League basketball games that can be watched at any time on demand. They also cover boxing, athletics, eventing and even the women's six nations rugby!

Pretty good quality video too. www.sportuk.tv

Also, the guy with the 22inch monitor - it's got a better resolution than a 720p high-res TV so unless your 26inch TV is 1080p then your monitor is your highest resolution device.

clivex, Brussels,

Joost has nothing worth watching on it, thats why no one is using it I i installed it and its full of crap, there are some very very old movies on it but the rest of it is not for TV stuff its the sort of stuff they give away free on a web site, adverts disgiused as holiday shows that sort of stuff.

also You can never actaul watch what you want, 9 times out of 10 you would click on video and the next one or even the one after that would start playing, joost simple does not let you watch what you want when you want.

As for teh servies from teh big uk 4 they are usless they dont work like a VCR they work like DRM crap infested malware. To make matters worse the only shows on them our the channels own and worse that that the bbc wants to take the better shows off and charge for them!

Come back when you can compete with The Pieratbay, it may be illigal but ten thousand times better than any thing any of the big 4 offer, its not the price they win on its the DRM free approch.

Mr w Jones, Lvierpool, England

You can have UK internet tv, try liveuktv.com Used it for months now, pretty good.

GHL, middlebury, US/VT

I agree entirely with the comments about the poor state of Broadband in the UK. Whilst being able to download and watch some programs I only discovered 3 or 4 days after their showing were any good the BBC Iplayer is a menace stealing CPU time off my Vista laptop and broadband bandwidth by its peer to peer networking functions. The only way I found to minimise the lost CPU time was to de-install it as the "don't use peer to peer services" doesn't seem to work.
The idea of downloadable TV is interesting but there are better ways to get at that information or entertainment at the moment.

Ken, St Albans, UK

I want internet tv free and live

Muhammad Kamran, Multan, Pakistan

I refuse to use these services. Internet TV in Britain has to be one of the most ludricrous ideas of late considering that bulk of internet subscribers are already experiencing speed, contention and reliability issues. In terms of data communication infrastructure, Britain has become the laughing stock of western society with little hope of a competitive tech industry for at least the next ten years. The last thing we need is to cram more rich media onto an extremely overstretched and outdated national network. The complacency of BT and the Labour government on this matter is astoundingly abysmal considering that the future viability of Britain's economy is now directly threatened as a result of their inaction.

Devon Leslie, Edinburgh, Scotland

Personally I agree with some points raised by the person who commented above. The current copper wire lines used by the majority of "Broadband" users in the UK are terrible. Utterly terrible.

Also as highlighted in a previous article the BBC iPlayer is doing more to hinder than help our economy as the ISP has to buy extra broadband space from BT (that's if you're with a company who has to use a BT line, I for one am not, thank god!) which will in turn only mean higher tariffs for the customer as they are the ones causing the effect due to such media developments as the iPlayer.

Thirdly, I do not use my computer screen to watch tv. I have a 26" HDTV with the corresponding connections and I can relax and watch that in comfort and luxury. My 22" monitor is hardly up the standard of the TV and even if it were I sit in a computer chair to use my computer, sitting there idle watching the screen would just prove annoying to me personally.

This is why I do not use this Service.

Neil, London,

If you could watch from abroad this would be much more succesful (eg like Sling Media offers)

HG, AMSTERDAM, netherlands

I would be more willing to use them if they were in one place.
For example as it is, all of the services are based on P2P technologies, So if I have 4OD, IPlayer and SkyByBroadband, What internet connection is going to be left?

Simon Booth, Warrington, Uk/ cheshire

Why use streaming tv when you can download everything you want overnight via Torrent, and watch it when you want on your 2nd montior while playing online games.

At the moment most (if not all ISP's) are throttling bandwidth in the evenings, making a streamed show (be it iplayer, youtube) stop every 10 to 20 seconds, especially if doing other stuff (like online gaming).

I'd rather just download them while i sleep, and watch them when i want. no waiting for stremed connections, no pausing itself as it buffers more info, no adverts, and the freedom of large corporations not being able to 'target ad' me. oh, and while I think about it, I can also get shows from longer than 7 days ago! w00t and other such internet stuffs.

Andy, Wolverhampton,

I think it's because people are only using these services when they miss a programme. And with digital recorders that can store 60+ hours I'd imagine most people just record the shows themselves and watch them later. They don't need to use the iPlayer to watch their favourite shows.

It doesn't help that the shows take a day to appear for download. In this day and age I see no reason why a pre-recorded show can't be available for download 5 minutes after the show appears on TV.

Kurt Munro, Edinburgh,

The technology is in its infancy - the accessability of high speed broadband services are fairly new - 5 years ago the majority of people didn;t have an internet connection, and most of those who did had dial-up access. Internet TV is something that will catch on - it just won't be an overnight success. You can hardly expect internet TV to be more popular than a book especially for something that has only had a decent standard in the last 18 months. The level of interactivity and choice willl be the main drivers for the success of Internet TV and other on-demand services, and I am sure this is driven part by the content creators willingness to make it available on the internet, and of course the internet service being fast enough and cheap enough for most people to use it. This is a little while off. I suspect this article had a hidden agenda behind it - isn't The Times owned by Rupert Murdoch, owner of SKY - the biggest potential loser if Internet TV had become a success?

Timothy Francis, London,