Surfers turn on to broadband television

The increasing availability of high-speed broadband services had led to a growth in high-quality, on-demand video entertainment, a leading organisation claims.

According to research by online technology publication Techwatch.co.uk, the internet has the potential to overtake television as the main source of programme viewing, as long as some of the previous barriers can be breached.

Brian Turner, executive editor of the company, pointed out that growth signs are down to the strength and flexibility of broadband as a platform for broadcasting.

Mr Turner also said that the merging of traditional media and the internet has been coming for a while, but faster broadband speeds are now making the right conditions for the trend to grow.

"Nowadays, [internet protocol television] services are becoming much more mainstream and home video entertainment systems repeatedly try and leverage the internet for a wider service offering," he said.

In related news, British Telecom has revealed the first areas in the UK to benefit from its super-fast £1.5 billion fibre-to-the-cabinet broadband network implementation.