Television, as mentioned in an earlier blog, has been streaming on the Internet since the early nineties. It has however never had so many free to view channels as it does now. The World Wide Internet TeleVision is one such example, available in five European languages and harbouring the feeds to no less then 2316 stations of which 94 are coming form the
United Kingdom. These channels are however not your typical television channels but Internet specific streams such as BBC Weather, E-Music Television and Information TV, where typically pre-recorded footage and re-released programs are streamed. Most is there for relatively current, but does not have the same glossy entertaining feel as television does. Here you download a feed that you open on your media player and then watch or listen to what feed you receive.Beeline TV, Broadcast-live and Crafty TV are other similar examples. These contain more mainstream channels such as MTV feeds, Nickelodeon and ESPN, and vital news channels such as Sky News and BBC News 24 (of which some streams can be found directly from the homepages of these websites).
Other sites offer a one off fee to view Sky channels such Watch Sky Free and Watch Online. Whether these work or not is however another matter. Another way to turn your computer into a television is to buy a TV card which once connected to an aerial may pick up all free to view digital channels.
Even though some of these sites contain mainstream feeds, they often come from homepages of websites which can already be accessed. The majority of free to view online television channels are like the many cable networks across
America. They appeal to the minority and thus do no have such a great following. They do not screen big shows with big stars, do not have big budgets and are not subsidised through advertising. These factors alone make them an inferior option to terrestrial, digital and cable television channels which offer much more quality and range. This is not really an avenue I wish to go down at this stage. I once had an idea of a station specifically for students, with student produced content, but such a station may fall into all of the categories which make the online channels fail so miserably.Secondary sources of the televisions use on the Internet is of course through TV guides (such as the Radio Times, TV Guide, and On the Box) and reviews (such as TV.com, Radio Times and The Mirror).
