“What’s on tonight?” ditched for “what shall we watch tonight?”

Downloading TV content via the internet is set to become this year’s broadband phenomenon, according to leading price comparison and switching site, uSwitch.com.

‘What’s on tonight?’ will be replaced by ‘what shall we watch tonight?’ as the arrival IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) effectively allows consumers the power to design their own TV schedules, watching what they want, when they want to.

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The average UK broadband user is already spending 30 minutes a week downloading films and a further 23 minutes a week watching TV online – yet uSwitch.com says that ‘we ain’t seen nothing yet’ as the country holds its breath for major communications providers to bring IPTV into the mainstream over the coming months. This week’s launch of Virgin Central will revolutionise the way its three million customers will watch TV, using ‘on-demand’ technology to provide customers with instant access to programmes at any time of the day or night. Sky is set to fight back next month with bringing its ‘Sky Anytime’ product, already available over PC’s and mobiles, to TV sets.

IPTV delivers high quality digital television content to consumers over their broadband connection. There are currently three main delivery methods: BT, Homechoice (soon to re-launched as Tiscali TV) and soon-to-launch Sky Anytime, use internet technology to deliver digital TV and ‘on-demand’ services straight to customers’ television sets. Sky, Channel 4, the BBC and soon-to-launch ITV transfer TV content over a customer’s broadband connection directly to their computer. Virgin Media’s cable customers, on the other hand, receive ‘on-demand’ content via their cable connection.

Over 100 million households in the world already have access to IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) and there are now over over 1,300 IPTV channels online offering free content downloads, but as broadband connections become faster, millions more are expected to become IPTV converts.

Steve Weller, Head of Communications Services at uSwitch.com, comments: “The UK is now in the midst of a full scale roll-out of IPTV. Sky has traditionally dominated this arena, broadcasting a vast array of viewing content, but this is going to be aggressively challenged with the influx of new providers set to launch rival services that will provide compelling content ‘on-demand’ this year.

“The benefits to consumers are clear. IPTV offers exceptional viewing choice and great value for money. With films starting at 99p there are clear cost savings to be made over the traditional high street video stores, and we wouldn’t be surprised if these cease to exist by the end of next year. The key benefit of IPTV, however, has to be that you can watch what you want, when you want to without even having to get off the sofa.

“But IPTV is not only a good news story for customers – it’s an extremely powerful cash cow for providers, which is why we are seeing more of them enter this market. Broadband on its own generates little profit, but content provides an additional revenue stream.”

Anyone with a broadband connection can now enjoy IPTV by simply logging onto the internet or subscribing to an ‘on-demand’ TV service. However uSwitch.com warns broadband users to check the download limit of their service. The file size of a 30 minute TV episode is around 225Mb, while that of a two hour film is up to 900Mb. Some broadband starter packs limit downloads to just 2Gb per month, which would be almost completely used up by downloading to two movies, so it is essential for customers to steer clear of low download limits if they are planning to download TV via their broadband connection.

Weller continues: “IPTV is here to stay, and our prediction is that movie studios and independent TV producers will start to make their programmes directly available to consumers rather than via domestic IPTV providers. Certainly we’ll see more content become available as the TV producers start to convert their old programmes into digital format. As IPTV take-up grows and TVs develop built-in broadband modems, consumers will start to watch more IPTV without even knowing it. Users of the service will be given a menu of programmes to watch, click, buy and then view. It’s still TV but not as you know it.“