Peter Griffin: Video-on-demand shows massive potential

Someone once said that in a country as big as the United States you can find 50 examples of anything. The quote is especially relevant to technology.

From TV programmes broadcast in high-definition sharpness to wireless internet services delivered on tap wherever people congregate, Americans are well ensconced in the digital age.

Every second person on the street carries an iPod music player and motorists listen to Howard Stern on satellite radio stations beamed from space to their cars.

There's so much going on there it's easy to forget the country's numerous problems and develop a severe case of gadget envy.

One tech trend is particularly heartening - the growth in internet TV services. It's heartening because the unbundling of Telecom's broadband monopoly promises to eventually deliver high-speed internet services that will allow similar services to take off in New Zealand.

In the space of a year, at least three major US providers have emerged offering video downloads of TV programmes on a video-on-demand, per-view basis.

The high availability of fast internet connections provided by cable TV and copper-line broadband providers in the United States has made such service viable. It's a new business model for TV networks trying to breathe new life into shows gathering dust in their archives.

A large archive of video from NBC, Disney, the fantastic Sci-Fi channel and classic shows such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Office are available at Apple's iTunes, priced from US$1.99 ($3.17) per episode. New programmes are generally available the day after they air on TV.

Unfortunately, the iTunes store still remains unavailable to New Zealand despite the apparent eagerness of the local music industry to support the online operation.

In2TV is a joint venture between AOL and Time Warner and differs from the iTunes video model in that it streams free video programmes culled from the Warner Bros back catalogue. Six channels of TV content are available, from Toontopia for the kids to reruns of classic sitcoms such as Growing Pains and Welcome Back Cotter.

In2TV goes further than rival web TV providers by making some attempt to ensure a high-quality picture with its so-called "Hi-Q" technology.

Videos can be screened at near-DVD quality at full size. A broadband connection is needed to get a decent picture, but the depth of content available makes it an impressive online entertainment source.

A random but growing mix of free and premium video content is also available on Google Video, an offshoot of the world's most popular search engine.

Broadcaster CBS makes its programmes available to download through Google Video. Among the shows that can be bought for streaming via the internet are CSI, The Brady Bunch and a personal favourite of mine, The Twilight Zone, for US$1.99 an episode.

NBA basketball games, meanwhile, are US$3.95 each and are made available a day after they are broadcast on national TV. US-registered credit cards are required, so, once again, the service is currently restricted to the US market.

Serving a slightly different market is Youtube.com, which has grown in one year to provide up to 40 million free streaming video downloads a day. The site hosted the ingenious satirical mash-up of the Telecom 3G ad, which was pulled when Telecom started shouting copyright infringement.

CNN Pipeline (www.cnn.com/pipeline), a premium service comprised of four live video news feeds with dedicated news anchors, no commercials and access to the network's video archive, is bringing news TV to the web.

In New Zealand, both TV3 and TVNZ offer video clips of their news and current affairs programmes, freely available from their respective websites. Wireless broadband provider cafenet.co.nz cafenet.co.nz even provides a free video stream of channels One and 2 via its wireless access spots in Wellington and Auckland.

The religious channel Shine TV (www.shinetv.co.nz/) gives away its free video sermons from the mount on its website.

But, as the United States shows, New Zealand's internet TV market is very much in its infancy. Just imagine the possibilities if the best of TVNZ's programming from the past 30 years was digitised and sold as downloads, able to be played on mobile devices. It's no longer such a distant possibility.

Going on the US experience, one area where faster, cheaper broadband will provide new entertainment choices and the opportunity for broadcasters to resurrect popular gems from their archives is in the area of internet TV.