The television landscape is changing rapidly and with the rise in popularity of WebTV, more and more broadcasters are turning their attention towards Internet broadcasting and online video streaming.

This is due to a change in viewing habits, with a new generation of “mice” more likely to log on to online content rather than tune in to traditional TV stations. Last year saw a massive increase in the number of viewers watching content online, with an estimated 10 billion online videos viewed each month.

In the US, major studios like Fox and NBC Universal are upgrading and developing their online efforts in an attempt to win a piece of the huge audience of Web TV viewers. The two media giants joined forces in March of this year to create Hulu.com.

They are not alone as Warner Brothers is also performing with ‘TheWB.com’ airing episodes of popular shows ‘Friends’ and ‘The OC’ for audiences across the US.

Marketing experts predict that this online content model, supported by limited advertising, will work. It’s already a method, which has worked successfully for Hulu, that greets visitors with a short, unobtrusive announcement at the beginning of each stream. This takes up only about 10% of the content’s runtime, which is considerably less than what one would expect to find on network TV.

Here in the UK it’s a similar story, with many broadcasters increasingly turning their attention to streaming video online. This is evidenced by the growing popularity of established broadcasters’ online WebTV platforms, such as the BBC’s iPlayer.

However, these online platforms have the flaw that due to licensing restrictions, they can only be viewed in their home country. Hulu.com and thewb.com are not available outside of the US, while BBC iPlayer is not available to viewers outside of the UK.

Computer scientist Vint Cerf, widely considered one of the fathers of the Internet, believes that the future of traditional television lies in the ability to integrate with IPTV (Internet Protocol TV).

This vision of things to come means that broadcasters would send IPTV programs to homes through a private Internet network. Viewers would watch the shows on computer-powered televisions that translate the IPTV data into images and sound that are displayed on a television screen.

“It is my expectation that traditional broadcast media will become conduits for IPTV delivery,” Cerf said. “I think we’re maybe 10 years away, if the TV makers and TV broadcasters get there.”

A spokesperson for Web TV specialists Streaming Tank said: “Many broadcasters are seeing the value of the internet as an efficient and cost-effective medium, and it has a huge role to play in the way people watch TV. in the future”.