IPTV Guide

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Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) simply means using your phone line to watch TV via the web.

Using the power of the net, you can either watch programmes on your PC or hook up a set top box (usually supplied by your service provider) to your television and watch it without even having to turn your computer on.

Most Video on Demand services, an increasingly popular way of watching what you want, when you want, use IPTV.

If you're using a set top box, your provider, Tiscali for instance, has a vast online catalogue stored centrally. All you need to do is select the show you want to watch or the channel you want to stream, sit back and enjoy. But it's not just traditional broadcasters and ISPs who are getting in on the act.

Joost, the gogglebox venture from the founders of Skype, is setting its goal to take over telly on your PC with its P2P system. This means you pull data from loads of different machines rather than one server so accessing material is speedier. You can then watch it on your monitor or stream it to your TV.

Basically, if you want TV on demand, then you need IPTV because TV is changing. The days of getting home and surfing through loads of rubbish channels is over. Even the BBC is getting involved with its iPlayer.

Best of all, with the web being a playground for everyone, you can pretty much get hold of any channel or program you want - like youtube, but bigger and better.

Sky's full VOD service will soon be up and running and with Joost imminent, you should already have a wide choice of providers to choose from as we speak.

Talking of which, by the end of 2007 Tiscali TV will be available to a footprint of over 10 million UK homes. The roll out will continue through 2008 and the TV service will be available to Tiscali's entire unbundled local loop network by the end of 2008.

The Tiscali TV pack offers consumers over 30 digital TV channels including all of the free digital channels from the BBC, Channel 4, Five and ITV, including E4, BBC Three, fiveUS and ITV2, also a 'Replay or Catch-up' service allowing subscribers to watch over 50 hours of key BBC programmes up to seven days after they have been broadcast, and access to a further 100 hours of on-demand programming including complete series of Dr. Who, Friends, Sex and the City and Prime Suspect.