TV invented in the beginning of XX century and Commercially available since the late 1930s, is important source information, pleasure, and public service events. The signal for TV sets arrives through
different ways – from locally deployed TV transmitting antennas, via cable, from satellites, from DVD players. Quite important and useful for users is an opportunity to get TV programs through the Internet. The use of the Internet to watch full television episodes has tripled since 2006 among those aged 13-to-54, according to a new report from Knowledge Networks.
"The small but notable level of people watching TV programs via the Internet on regular TV sets suggests that the convergence of the two screens for mainstream audiences may finally be on the horizon," said David Tice, Vice President and Group Account Director at Knowledge Networks.
"Growing numbers of 'connected TVs' - those that access the Internet - are making this option increasingly user-friendly. The fact that over one-third of TV homes now have a bundled TV/Internet service package is no doubt accelerating this blurring of boundaries."
Other highlights from the report include:
"7 percent in the 13-to-54 age group, and 11 percent of those 18 to 34, have used a TV to watch streamed or downloaded video . . . "
"6 percent of those 13 to 54, and 9 percent of 18-to-34 have cut back or canceled their TV service in the past year due to their on-line viewing of network programming, or plan to do so in the next year . . . "
Internet television allows its users to choose the program or the TV show they want to watch from an archive of programs or from a channel directory. The two forms of viewing Internet television are streaming the content directly to a media player or simply downloading the program to the user's computer.
Before 2006, most Catch-up services used peer-to-peer (P2P) networking, in which users downloaded an application and data would be shared between the users rather than the service provider giving the now more commonly used streaming method. Now most service providers have moved away from the P2P systems and are now using the streaming media. This is good for the service provider as in the old P2P system the distribution costs were high and the servers normally couldn't handle the large amount of downloading and data transfer.
And live streaming television on-line is possible the cheapest way to watch TV. Here's how it works: You download and install a special Live streaming television software, connect to the Internet, and that's it.
There are hundreds of free Internet TV channels available, and when you install this software you'll see. Even programs that are not available in your state or region are available via the Internet. Also, there is no need to buy any expensive hardware; you already have everything you need.
This option is the future of television, many experts agree. But it's not yet going to replace the traditional satellite television providers. However, this is an extremely cheap way to enjoy TV programs and many people are taking the advantage of it. If you think it's time to switch to watching TV over the Internet, then do it now.
There are a lot of free TV streaming channels available on the Internet. Here you can find the list of providers