Internet television

In the past, television was only distributed via cable, satellite, or terrestrial systems. Today - 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. In addition to this, new Internet-only television content has appeared which is not distributed via cable, satellite, or terrestrial systems. Very few cable and satellite television stations stream the same content over the Internet, thus protecting the cable systems right of first use for the content.
Internet TV can come in many forms. For instance, it can
* be watched on a regular TV (via a Set-top box), or on a computer, or on a portable device (such as a mobile phone)
* show a channel 'live' (like regular TV), or allow the viewer to select a show to watch on demand ("Video-on-Demand")
* involve any budget - from home camcorder productions to expensive professional productions
* be protected from copying, or easily duplicated as a perfect copy
* be free or paid for - and may be supported by advertisements
* be an interactive or passive medium
The technology of Internet television is no longer as limited by the previous barriers of technology as it once was. It used to be that one of the barriers to wider adoption of Internet television was streaming technology and bandwidth limitations. The bandwidth issue primarily meant that streams were using low bandwidth and that resulted in poor quality. Increasing the bandwidth for the stream being broadcast resulted in a high cost to the providers. Many sites that stream Internet broadcasts have moved to using Flash for videos since it employs vector graphic technology as opposed to turning every bit on and off. Many sites utilize the built-in media player to display the streamed video. Directory sites, like http://www.fantasy-tv.com , direct viewers to available streaming channels by use of a menu system.
The BBC's Dirac project seeks to address the technological barriers by creating a scalable, high-quality, free codec for streaming video content over the net. Nonetheless, the BBC today simply provides a small window using flash as the vehicle for streaming its videos,
As Internet television becomes more pervasive, efforts are being made by companies to develop the transmission of existing pay-TV channels to regular TV sets over the net, while retaining control over how the media is used. Such control is required in order to protect existing subscription and pay-per-view business models. Additionally, there are the copyright issues associated with the distribution of media, like video. The challenges lie in seeking to maintain the protections of a copyright and the revenues associated with it while moving to another delivery model for video content.

Implementation

Internet Television services have at least two different models:

Fee based

This type of service is generally funded and supported by large telecom providers and follows the previous cable, satellite or terrestrial systems, based on a subscription fee, adding new features like high-definition TV, video on demand and digital video recording.
The usage of internet protocols to provide two-way communication will also open the way for interactivity with the TV program content, for example making it possible to choose between multiple camera angles, vote on an interactive TV show, or order a product sample.
Europe and Asia have been the leaders in implementing these Internet Television services for paying customers, which are expected to become mainstream in just a few years replacing traditional cable subscriptions. In the US the providers have not shown so much interest about this technology yet. Internet Television is a more interesting alternative to cable TV also in countries where there is a poor cable infrastructure, like India and China.
The software platform chosen by network operators to provide the most recent Internet television services has been Microsoft TV IPTV Edition, which works together with a set-top box.
These services are limited to the offer supplied by the provider meaning that you can only get on your TV set the channels and services you are paying for.

Free

Free Internet Television is available from the Web, and is accessible without the need for either a set-top-box, a specific carrier or an operator.
The greatest core theme of the free Internet Television model is that it is based on the same publishing model that exists on the Web: it allows access to an open platform, that anyone can access, use and build for, together with the development of open source software, open standards and formats.
Those that create valued and interesting video products have now the opportunity to distribute it directly to a large audience - something impossible with the previous television distributing models (closed software, closed hardware, closed network). The free model has been used around the globe by local and independent television channels aiming for niche target audiences, or to build a collaborative environment for media production, a platform for citizens' media.

Barriers to Internet TV

Some perspectives indicate there are several technological barriers to wider adoption of internet television, the reality is that it is easy to hook up your television to your computer. While some media player streams are less visually clear than others, some of the television coming across from stations rival the broadcasts from the cable box. All it takes is a wireless mouse and the right connections to the TV. Add a stereo or better sound system and the results are quite credible for television viewing. Sites like www.fantasy-tv.com outline the connection from the computer to the television in an easy to understand and visual format.
Some of the technological arguments to broad internet television acceptance are:

1. Lack of set top boxes - these need the latest compression technologies (MPEG-4's H.264/AVC codec; and VC-1). Decoding chips are still new and expensive.
2. Incompatible standards (different software and/or hardware are required to watch different providers)
3. Low bandwidth to the home - a standard definition digital signal requires a 2 Mbit/s connection. High definition requires 8 Mbit/s.
4. Restricted bandwidth in the internet backbone (this will be a problem if many people decide to adopt internet TV via unicast.)
5. Streaming technology - which can be of poor quality and high cost to the providers. Multicast and P2PTV are some of the suggested solutions.
6. Old media meeting new media - licensing regulations, existing deals, and uncertainty over payment, security, and advertising has led to only slow steps being taken by the companies which own the TV content.

Either VC-1 or MPEG-4's H.264/AVC codecs are being used for downloadable video (as also used in HD-DVD and Blu-Ray DVDs). For streaming video content, the BBC's Dirac project seeks to address quality and incompatibility by creating a scalable, high-quality, free codec.

Terminology

Internet television is a fledgling industry and some of the general terms are buzzwords. An Internet television show is transmitted over the Internet using an "Internet Protocol" (IP), and "Internet TV" is sometimes called "IPTV". However, IPTV is more general than Internet TV.
Internet television is often defined as content being transmitted over an internet (either on the public Internet or on other networks such as closed corporate or private broadband networks).
On the other hand, there is also disagreement about using "IPTV" as a short-form for "Internet television", since an alternative definition and trademark already exists for the initialization.[citation needed] And in that case, IPTV is just a part of Internet television.

Other names for Internet television

* IPTV - Internet Protocol Television
* Television on the desktop (TOD)
* TV over IP - Television over Internet Protocol
* Vlog For video web logging.
* Vodcast For video on demand.

IPTV promise meets reality

By Marguerite Reardon

The first major deployment of an Internet-based TV service by a phone company will soon be under way, but the promise of new interactive features and lower prices for consumers could be a long time coming.

AT&T, the largest phone company in the United States, is preparing to launch what will be the biggest deployment of IPTV to date. As the company moves from a small controlled release of the service in San Antonio to widespread deployment in 20 cities by the end of the year, all eyes will be on Ma Bell and Microsoft, which developed the software enabling the new service.

Both companies say they are confident that the technology is ready for prime time. But they plan to move slowly and cautiously as they deploy service.

"We expect demand to be very strong," said Christopher Rice, executive vice president at AT&T. "But we need to be careful how we manage this demand. We learned a lot of lessons from the early days of DSL. We don't want demand to outstrip capacity."

IPTV promises to change the way people watch TV. They'll be able to interact with television shows, choose multiple camera angles while watching sporting events, search and view movies and TV programs from an almost limitless library of digital content, share pictures and home videos, access more high-definition content, and even shop from their TVs. And with the telephone company entering as a new competitor against cable, prices on TV service are expected to fall.

But cutting-edge features and deep discounts in pricing could be a long time coming, because, at least initially, AT&T's service will look a lot like what cable providers already offer. And unlike its current DSL strategy, which has slashed prices down to $12.99 for 3Mbps downloads, AT&T, which hasn't yet published pricing for its new TV service, said it isn't planning huge discounts out of the gate.

"We plan to be competitive with the market on pricing," Rice said. "Just like with our other products, people will get discounts the more services they buy from us. But we have no plans to be a low-cost provider."

AT&T's service, called U-verse, will not look much different from what is already being offered by cable providers. Like cable, U-verse will offer a digital video recorder, video on demand, and at least one channel of high-definition content.

It's a new market for carriers with brand new technology ... It's hard to get cookie cutter about these early deployments.

--Christine Heckart, general manager of marketing, Microsoft TV

Meeting customer expectations
Still, users who have been testing the service in San Antonio say AT&T's service is an improvement over what they can get from cable. Alan Weinkrantz, who has a blog describing his experiences using the AT&T service, said he especially likes the IPTV interface and the fast channel changing. He's also impressed with the breadth of on-demand titles that are already available in the video library.

He plans to become a regular, paying customer when the service is available commercially in San Antonio. But he said the price has to be right and AT&T must prove that high-definition programming works. Currently, AT&T is not offering any high-definition channels as part of the trial.

"I'm very intrigued by what IP can offer in the future," he said. "The interface is very simple to use. So, if I only had to pay $5 more and HD worked, I'd be willing to pay for it."

Christine Heckart, general manager of marketing for Microsoft TV, said consumers just want basic TV features right now. She said that adding more interactive applications too soon could overwhelm customers.

"This year we just need to get solid deployments with competitive offerings," she said. "It's a new market for carriers with brand new technology. The rollout will be very high-touch. It's hard to get cookie cutter about these early deployments, and there will be unforeseen issues that need to be worked out."

Parks Associates analyst Deepa Iyer agrees. She said most people who would consider switching their TV service to the phone companies' offering just want more of what they already can get from the cable operators at a better value.

"Early adopters may want to play around with new services," she said. "But most users just want to turn on the TV and sit back and be entertained. And they are happy to pay the same amount, as long as they get a bit more content or a few more features."

Iyer said new features that seem to most interest consumers include remote home monitoring, viewing caller-ID information on the TV, downloading music from the TV.

Even though AT&T will be selling a me-too TV service initially, the company likely won't cut prices drastically to win new customers. Fees charged by Verizon Communications, which has already begun rolling out its TV service, serve as good indicators of what to expect in terms of pricing.

While some customers have been able to individually negotiate reduced pricing in areas where Verizon's TV service is available, most cable companies have held their ground on pricing. Instead they've offered discounts on bundles of high-speed Internet access, telephone and video services.

For example, in New York City's Long Island suburbs, where Cablevision competes with Verizon's Fios fiber-optic service, the cable operator is offering a package of cable, high-speed Internet and phone service for $90 per month for the first year--very close in price to Verizon's Fios triple-play package, which costs $105 per month.

In Keller, Texas, the first city where Verizon offered TV service, the local cable operator, Charter Communications, is charging $70 for the first six months for a 3Mbps broadband and cable service. This is exactly the price Verizon charges for its new 5Mbps high-speed Internet access and TV offering.

Matching features--and price
Microsoft's Heckart said AT&T and other phone companies don't need to slash prices right away to win customers. According to a study Microsoft commissioned that surveyed over 800 potential IPTV consumers, AT&T and other phone companies offering TV service could get as much as 13 percent of the market simply by offering a service that matched cable's on features as well as price.

Even with predictions such as these, Cox Communications president Patrick Esser said he isn't too worried about competition from AT&T, which will compete in at least 40 percent of Cox's territory once AT&T completes its merger with BellSouth.

While AT&T takes its time deploying IPTV, Cox will continue to push new services and bundles into its existing customer base. The bundle is key, Esser said, because it makes customers more loyal to a service provider, which makes them less likely to switch to another company.

"As long as we can get one service into the home, we can work on selling a second service and a third service," he said. "Am I worried about competition from the phone companies? I worry about all competition, but I don't sit in fear. I sit in planning."

Web TV

A web TV is a specially-adapted television set designed to allow internet connection, or more commonly, a set-top box (i.e. cable decoder) which connects to a standard TV for the same purpose. The setup includes a web browser, cord or wireless (i.e. bluetooth or IRDA) keyboard and connection to the Internet (i.e. using modem, ADSL, cable, PLC).
While web-TV does not allow as much functionality as a computer-based browser, it is a low-cost alternative to a traditional computer connection to the Internet. A PlayStation 2 with a PlayStation 2 Linux Kit, a Dreamcast with the standard pack-in modem and the Dreamkey 3 ISP Configuration Set-Up disk, and a modded Xbox can be considered an alternative to web TV.
In 2000, the UK market also had products like the WEB2U and Bush Internet Surf Set. In 2005, the Netgem provided an EPG TV Guide for over 80 Freeview TV and Radio Channels. The set top box can be set up with Top Up TV pay channels. The Netgem's USB port allows for a 4 port USB hub option for cameras, hard drives, or memory pen drives.
The term web TV is also used about TV transmissions over the internet, usually by streaming or relaying, known as webtvrelay.
References:Wikipedia

DAQTron mixes tools to aid digital TV testing

AUSTIN,Texas — DAQTron Inc. ( Roswell, GA) , used NIWeek to release Trident Suite, a set of software and hardware packages designed to provide customized testing automation of digital television technologies based on National Instruments LabVIEW and NI TestStand software combine with PXI hardware. The suite includes Trident Transport Stream Generator (TSG) which is used to create customized transport streams the content of which can be chosen by the user and can be video, still images, video streams and audio samples and streams. These transport streams generated can include system information for a number of different standards, including DVB, ATSC and ISDB.

The Trident Digital Video Generator (DVG) is used to transform customized transport stream files in to a single binary data format suitable for playback on National Instruments PXI RF signal generator (RFSG) hardware.

Binary data generated by the DVG is streamed by the Trident Digital Video Player (DVP) to NI RFSG hardware. DVP also perfoms other testing and error checking, such as bit error ration testing and adding impairments for signal quality tests.

In July DAQTron and Filtronic Signal Solutions (FSS) signed agreements that DAQTron would acquire the intellectual property, some equipment assets, and inventory of the Sigtek group in Columbia, MD. DAQTron will provide sales and support for existing products such as the ST-260C from their Atlanta office, with development efforts for new products such as the 260D DOCSIS 3.0 RF Tracer continuing in Maryland.

Colin Holland
EE Times Europe

World’s first DMB-TH TV tuner

The Standardization Administration of China has recently announced the adoption of the DMB-TH (Digital Multimedia Broadcast-Terrestria/Handheld) digital TV standard for digital TV broadcasts to sets and handhelds.
The final DMB-TH standard is a joint standard based on Tsinghua University’s (Beijing) DMB-T and Jiaotong University’s (Shanghai) ADTB-T.
This announcement ends speculation on what standard was to be used and paves the way for broadcasters to change their transmissions over from analog to digital.
Coinciding with this news, Animation Technologies Inc. has announced their release of the world’s first DMB-TH TV tuner for PCs, the TV Walker DMB-TH, produced under their LifeView branding.

The TV Walker DMB-TH is a USB 2.0 TV tuner that is fully compliant with the new DMB-TH standard and allows desktop and laptop PC owners to watch and record digital television from DMB-TH transmissions.
It can receive broadcasts for set-top televisions as well as those for handhelds. It can also receive HDTV quality television with AC3 sound even while in motion, making it useful for mobile TV viewing.
A LifeView representative stated that this was a milestone for the company in that LifeView is now the first company capable of providing digital TV solutions for every standard worldwide, including DVB-T, DVB-S, ATSC, ISDB-T and now DMB-TH.

About Animation Technologies Inc.
Since it was founded in 1990, Animation Technologies Inc. has been one of the pioneers in video capture technology.
The company is committed to developing and marketing cutting-edge multimedia and video products for the corporate, consumer and OEM markets.
With it's experienced R&D team and it's hands-on top management, Animation Technologies is uniquely positioned to develop and promote innovative video-capture products.
The company's philosophy is encapsulated in “The Three R's”: providing the Right Product at the Right Time with the Right Pricing.

Discovery in schools

Discovery Education unitedstreaming is a digital video-on-demand and online teaching service to help improve students' retention and test scores; it is aligned to U.S. state and provincial standards. Find out what more than 30,000,000 teachers and students already know - Discovery Education unitedstreaming works.

The Weather Channel Launches Interactive 'Blue Box' Video Player

The Weather Channel launches "Blue Box," a state-of-the-art video player on weather.com. The flash-based player, designed to showcase the vast library of video content on weather.com and provide additional opportunities for advertisers to target consumers, is powered by technology from Brightcove and DoubleClick.

The player features made-for-broadband content as well as programming from The Weather Channel network, including new shows such as Epic Conditions. Visitors to weather.com can now easily search and tab-through video content as well as share favorite videos with friends. Enhancements for advertisers include the ability to place brand-messages in three different areas on the IAB compliant player.

The Blue Box player utilizes DoubleClick In-Stream, the industry's leading solution for video ad serving, which allows The Weather Channel to schedule, forecast, and measure the effectiveness of in-stream video advertisements within Blue Box, while providing IAB-compliant metrics. In addition, Blue Box uses DART for Publishers, DoubleClick's ad management and serving solution, to manage its extensive advertising inventory

Along with weather.com, The Weather Channel Interactive will be adopting the Brightcove Internet TV platform on a corporate-wide basis. With Brightcove, TWCI will have the ability in the future to syndicate content to Website affiliates and through viral distribution via email, blogs and social networks.

Blue Box will make navigation as simple as possible by featuring five "channels," each with a distinct color and logo to support overall branding and provide visual cues while moving through the player experience. Videos will be categorized under the umbrellas of Forecasts, Lifestyle, News/Breaking Weather, On The Weather Channel, and Severe Weather.

"With all the video content weather.com has to offer, we wanted to provide a superior video player that will make it easier for our users to access and view relevant content, especially during severe weather and hurricanes," said Joe Fiveash, executive vice president and general manager of The Weather Channel Interactive.

Millions of users turn to weather.com during severe weather to stay informed about hurricanes and threatening storms. With the upgraded experience provided by Blue Box, users will be able to find relevant content quickly and easily and ultimately safeguard users by providing valuable information.

Blue Box is available now and can be found clicking http://www.weather.com/bluebox.

Telekom Slovenije to invest €450mn on fibre-to-the-home by 2015

August 7, 2007 – Slovenian operator Telekom Slovenije has revealed that it plans to invest up to €450mn (US$619.295mn) between now and 2015 on a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network, in order to boost high-speed access capabilities and encourage uptake of advanced services such as IPTV.

The operator reportedly aims to offer high-speed access capabilities to 70% of households in the country, which has a population of 2mn. Telekom Slovenije, which has called the project F2, intends to invest €50mn this year to deliver fibre to 50,000 homes in Slovenia’s main cities.

The operator aims to have 100,000 homes connected with point-to-point active Ethernet by the end of 2008, and 300,000 by the end of 2010. By 2015, Telekom Slovenije intends to rollout fibre to around 434,000 homes, comprising 70% of Slovenia’s households, which should help encourage adoption of bandwidth-intensive services such as IPTV, video on demand and interactive gaming. The operator launched its IPTV service, SiOL, earlier this year.

Telekom Slovenije reportedly intends to spend €300mn on the F2 project by 2010, and €400mn to €450mn by 2015. The European Investment Bank has already granted a €100mn loan to the operator for its broadband plans.

Europe, Place Your Bets: Digital vs. IPTV

Europe, Place Your Bets: Digital vs. IPTV

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) reaches two-tenths percent of the television-friendly homes in Europe. There will be an estimated 340,000 new subscribers by the end of this year, and the number is predicted to double next year.

Europe's traditional digital pay television operators are ready for the competition. With an expected audience of 94.4 million subscribers by 2008, tradition will not give way to the newcomer without a good fight. Okay. Big Deal. So What?

The "Big Deal" is that competition protects consumer wallets. The digital pay television operators enjoy customer finance and will jump through a few extra hoops to keep you happy when an alternative presents itself.

The "So What?" is that you will get more efficient television. Europe's pay TV industry will try to reduce the shockwave of euphoria customers' may experience upon the debut of IPTV by offering additional benefits.

Many “personalizing” services, such as video on demand (VOD) and digital video recording, are currently reaching consumers in the mean time.

IPTVNEWS.net

IPTV based Converged Services

Another advantage of an IP-based network is the opportunity for integration and convergence. Converged services implies interaction of existing services in a seamless manner to create new value added services. One good example is On-Screen Caller ID, getting Caller ID on your TV and the ability to handle it (send it to voice mail, etc). IP-based services will help to enable efforts to provide consumers anytime-anywhere access to content over their televisions, PCs and cell phones, and to integrate services and content to tie them together. Within businesses and institutions, IPTV eliminates the need to run a parallel infrastructure to deliver live and stored video services.
References:Wikipedia

Advantages

The IP-based platform offers significant advantages, including the ability to integrate television with other IP-based services like high speed Internet access and VoIP.
A switched IP network also allows for the delivery of significantly more content and functionality. In a typical TV or satellite network, using broadcast video technology, all the content constantly flows downstream to each customer, and the customer switches the content at the set-top box. The customer can select from as many choices as the telecomms, cable or satellite company can stuff into the “pipe” flowing into the home.
A switched IP network works differently. Content remains in the network, and only the content the customer selects is sent into the customer’s home. That frees up bandwidth, and the customer’s choice is less restricted by the size of the “pipe” into the home. This also implicates that the customer's privacy could be compromised to a greater extent than is possible with traditional TV or satellite networks.

Interactivity

An IP-based platform also allows significant opportunities to make the TV viewing experience more interactive and personalized. The supplier may, for example, include an interactive program guide that allows viewers to search for content by title or actor’s name, or a picture-in-picture functionality that allows them to “channel surf” without leaving the program they’re watching. Viewers may be able to look up a player’s stats while watching a sports game, or control the camera angle. They also may be able to access photos or music from their PC on their television, use a wireless phone to schedule a recording of their favorite show, or even adjust parental controls so their child can watch a documentary for a school report, while they’re away from home.

VoD

VoD stands for Video on Demand. VoD permits a customer to browse an online movie catalogue, to watch trailers and to select the movie he wants to watch. The playout of the selected movie starts nearly instantaneously on the customer's TV or PC.
Technically, when the customer selects the movie, a point-to-point unicast connection is set up between the customer's decoder (SetTopBox or PC) and the delivering streaming server. The signalling for the trick play functionality (pause, slow-motion, wind/rewind etc.) is assured by RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol).
The most common codecs used for VoD are MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and VC-1.
In order to avoid content piracy, the VoD content (the movies) is generally encrypted.

History of IPTV

In 1994, ABC's World News Now was the first television show to be broadcast over the Internet, using the CU-SeeMe videoconferencing software.
Internet radio company AudioNet started the first continuous live webcasts with content from WFAA-TV in January, 1998 and KCTU-LP on January 10, 1998.
In the past, this technology has been restricted by low broadband penetration. In the coming years, however, residential IPTV is expected to grow at a brisk pace as broadband was available to more than 200 million households worldwide in the year 2005, projected to grow to 400 million by the year 2010. Many of the world's major telecommunications providers are exploring IPTV as a new revenue opportunity from their existing markets and as a defensive measure against encroachment from more conventional Cable Television services. In the mean time, there are thousands of IPTV installations within schools, corporations, and other institutions that do not require the use of wide area connectivity.
As a result of the emergence of IPTV as an industry in its own right, dedicated trade shows and conferences have followed suit, such as IPTV World Forum Eastern Europe.

Architecture

Broadcast IPTV has two major architecture forms: free and fee based. As of June 2006, there are over 1,300 free IPTV channels available. This sector is growing rapidly and major television broadcasters worldwide are transmitting their broadcast signal over the Internet. These free IPTV channels require only an Internet connection and an Internet enabled device such as a personal computer, HDTV connected to a computer or even a 3G cell/mobile phone to watch the IPTV broadcasts. See also: Internet television Mobile TV
In December 2005, independently produced mariposaHD became the first original IPTV broadcast available in an HDTV format. Various Web portals offer access to these free IPTV channels. Some cite the ad-sponsored availability of TV series such as Lost and Desperate Housewives as indicators that IPTV will become more prevalent.
Because IPTV uses standard networking protocols, it promises lower costs for operators and lower prices for users. Using set-top boxes with broadband Internet connections, video can be streamed to households more efficiently than current coaxial cable. ISPs are upgrading their networks to bring higher speeds and to allow multiple High Definition TV channels.
[Market News First] MN1.com [4] went live at the Dallas Infomart for free. Covering the financial markets LIVE.
In 2006, AT&T launched its U-Verse IPTV service. Comprised of a national head end and regional video serving offices, AT&T offered over 300 channels in 11 cities with more to be added in 2007 and beyond. While using IP protocols, AT&T has built a private IP network exclusively for video transport.
Local IPTV, as used by businesses for Audio Visual AV distribution on their company networks is typically based on a mixture of: a) Conventional TV reception equipment and IPTV encoders b) IPTV Gateways that take broadcast MPEG channels and IP wrap them to create multicast streams.
IPTV uses a two-way digital broadcast signal sent through a switched telephone or cable network by way of a broadband connection and a set-top box programmed with software (much like a cable or DSS box) that can handle viewer requests to access to many available media sources.

IPTV

IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is a system where a digital television service is delivered using the Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure, which may include delivery by a broadband connection. For residential users, IPTV is often provided in conjunction with Video on Demand and may be bundled with Internet services such as Web access and VoIP. The commercial bundling of IPTV, VoIP and Internet access is referred to as a Triple Play. Adding the mobile voice service leads to the Quadruple Play denomination. IPTV is typically supplied by a broadband operator using a closed network infrastructure. This closed network approach is in competition with the delivery of TV content over the public Internet. This type of delivery is widely called TV over Internet or Internet Television. In businesses, IPTV may be used to deliver television content over corporate LANs and business networks. Perhaps a simpler definition of IPTV would be television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional formats and cabling, is received by the viewer through the technologies used for computer networks.