The New Era of Internet TV

Internet video surged into the mainstream in 2006 with the explosive growth of consumer video sharing sites. The leader in the category, YouTube, became a household name, and everyone watched in awe. The last 12 months saw an explosion in video publishing across a wide array of websites and Internet TV sites. Video is becoming so pervasive that if you have a web property without video something is wrong with it.

2008 will be a beginning of a new era that will be popularly known as The Era of Internet TV. Internet television utilizes the connections of the Internet to deliver video from a source to a target device. Almost everyone in the computer, telephone, and television industries expects Internet TV to take off in a big way. When it does, the way people watch TV will change fundamentally. You’ll download your favorite shows and watch them at your convenience, instead of waiting for them to be broadcast or sent across the cable at a certain time. That’s up in the air right now, but the race is on. It’s time to reflect on the forces that shaped the Internet TV industry during the last year and the trends that will define it in 2008.

With the increase in Internet connection speeds, advances in technology, the increase of total number of people online, and the decrease in connection costs — it has become increasingly common to find traditional television content accessible freely and legally over the Internet.