With the explosive growth video on the Internet, there is a lot of confusion around IPTV. Video on the Internet as we know it today (YouTube, Google Video, Channel Chooser), is not IPTV. IPTV uses Internet protocols to deliver video to your TV, not your computer. While the paradigm for video on the web is to search for video and watch in a small box on a small screen screen, IPTV will more closely emulate TV as we know it. TV on steroids.

IPTV will offer viewers both real-time streaming of shows and the ability to search for and select content for on-demand viewing. Imagine watching the Superbowl live and at the same time being able to jump back to the Superbowl X to watch a great catch from the past. IPTV will give content owners and media distributors the ability to improve the Superbowl viewer’s experience with easily searchable statistics and player profiles. The technology will also transform the TV experience from passive to active, easily allowing viewers to participate in what they are watching. Discussion boards could bring together viewers while the show is airing. Viewers could participate in polls and surveys. Users could select the kinds of advertising that they would like to see. The possibilities are really endless.

John Dvorak has an excellent basic introduction to IPTV in this article at PCMag in which he discusses what will most like be the biggest impact of IPTV:

“In an open (perhaps idealized) IPTV environment, anyone with a Web site and maybe $5,000 in gear could become a real broadcaster and have their programs seen anywhere in the world at any time. We’re not talking about “500 channels with nothing on” anymore. This could easily become 5 million channels with nothing on. Networks and broadcasters would no longer be limited by being part of someone’s (cable company, satellite provider, whatever) “offerings.” Everyone could send their signal to anyone in the world. You could watch Swedish sitcoms, rugby in Trinidad, anything from anywhere.”

This ideas has the potential to radically transform the media industry. It could be hugely disruptive to big media.