Speaking at the IPTV World Forum, Andrew Burke, chief of BT's entertainment unit, highlighted the increasing use of broadband as a content delivery platform. The operator also spoke of its own "entertainment facilitator" direction:

It [BT] also sees delivering TV over broadband as a way of getting high-definition (HD) content to people sooner than they will be able to get it through conventional, regular broadcasts.

The BBC's iMP has just finished successful technical trials and is set for much larger consumer trials later in 2005. Before it officially launches, the BBC must show the government how it offers value for money.

Delivering programmes over broadband offers clear public value, says the BBC, because it gives people more control, and more choice.

It's hard not to point out the difficulty in producing affordable broadband TV content with such strong bandwidth caps being imposed throughout the industry.

Watching a single Hi-Definition TV show for 30mins, even with the best compression vs quality ratio, would still eat into a significant amount of consumers monthly quote in one go.

Still, there are providers (HomeChoice) that have managed to successfully deliver TV content over broadband. Never the less, such services are often very different in design to a typical ISP. More @ BBC News Online.