UK TV over the Internet Explored

Summary: On-demand TV content on your telly over Broadband
Availability: Now

BT's TV-over-Internet market launched in December 2006, and is growing in popularity. BT Vision offers a Freeview service, plus on-demand TV shows and movies. You can view on-demand content on your TV either on a pay-per-view basis or with a monthly subscription.

The BT Vision box is FREE to BT Broadband customers. More details on our BT Vision page.

Details on how to get BT Vision at btvision.bt.com.

Summary: TV via Cable
Availability: NOW (cable areas)

If you're served by cable TV operator Virgin Media (formerly Telewest), take a look their On Demand service. This offers you a huge library of movies and programmes that you can access whenever you like in addition to your normal telly channels, with some content available in high definition.

With the Virgin Media On Demand service, you're not tied to specific start times as the library of programmes and movies are always available.

For more details, go to www.virginmedia.com

Summary: Live TV channels on your telly over the Internet
Availability: NOW (London, plus parts of UK)

If you live in one of the areas served by Tiscali TV, you may be able to connect to Tiscali TV, formerly Homechoice. The service covers a number of UK towns, including: London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leicester, Stevenage, Milton Keynes, Wolverhampton, Salford and Warrington

This service uses your existing phone line to deliver around 80 TV channels to your home. You're supplied with a special decoder box, and then have access to digital TV, plus a range of other services.
Tiscali TV offers over 80 channels of digital TV, 1000 on-demand movies, over 5000 music videos, hundreds of TV series, and a TV rewind service.

More on Tiscali TV at www.tiscali.co.uk/tv or on our Tiscali TV page

Summary: Watch live TV from another location on a PC
Availability: Now

A slightly different solution, but a really useful one. If you have Broadband at home, with a Slingbox you can access your home TV setup and watch TV or recordings over the Internet. Great for if you're away from home and want to watch TV shows or recordings from your own home setup, or perhaps if you want to set your Sky+ box remotely.

For more, see our Slingbox page.

Summary: Worldwide TV on your PC
Availability: Now

We've found a service called JumpTV that has partnered with more than 180 television broadcasters from over 60 countries to provide live broadcasting of TV stations from around the world. If you're outside of your native country and are looking to keep in touch with TV from back home, it may well be worth looking at JumpTV. Their site claims to offer rates of 30 frames a second over Broadband.

More details at www.jumptv.com.

Summary: Selected content on your PC over Broadband
Availability: Now

A number of TV companies offer their TV shows for viewing or download online. Here's a summary.

• BBC - The BBC's iPlayer allows you to watch 7 days of BBC content for free on your PC - www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
• ITV - Streaming service over the Internet, offering 30 days of "catch-up TV" www.itv.com/ITVPlayer
• Channel 4 - On demand service from a PC. Some content is pay-per-view. www.channel4.com/4od
• Five - Repeats of some of their shows on a PC demand.five.tv
• Sky - Some Sky TV shows, plus movies are available on your PC with the Sky Player. The service is free to Sky customers. www.sky.com/skyplayer
  

Take a listen to Show 19 of FrequencyCast, our downloadable radio show, for more on the services available in the UK

Summary: Content for your PC, iPod or iPhone
Availability: Now

iTunes, the software from Apple, has now got some deals in place to allow TV shows to be bought and downloaded on demand. BBC shows are available now, as well as US TV shows like Lost, South Park, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives.

Go to www.apple.com/itunes to see what's on offer.

Summary: Selected content on your PC over Broadband
Availability: Now

Joost is from the voice-over-Internet firm Skype. This allows for personalised channels, and show discussion areas. Programming is supplied by TV networks and large content providers. One to watch, and you can sign up at www.joost.com.

Summary: Films over broadband on your PC
Availability: NOW

CinemaNow is a US-based legal movie download service. Launched in 1999, it is completely authorised by the major movie studios such as Disney, Fox, MGM, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. With CinemaNow, you can download movies via Broadband, legally.

Forget going to Blockbuster for your video rental, this online service lets you access movie on demand over broadband. Search and select a movie from their large database, pay the rental fee, download the movie. You're allowed to watch the movie for a 24 hour period from the moment you open the movie file. You don't need to be connected to the 'Net while you watch.

For more details, go to www.cinemanow.com.

Summary: Watch live free-to-view channels on a PC.
Availability: Now

With a slightly misleading name, this service lets you watch 30 UK TV channels from your PC. Channels are all free-to-view in the UK. Sign up at www.tvcatchup.com.

Summary: Combines Freeview and content downloaded over Broadband.
Availability: Now

A Freeview receiver, hard-disk recorder and on-demand content over Broadband. Service launched in November 2008. More on our Fetch TV page.