TV Channel Five has launched a promotion to help publicise the launch of its new iPlayer-alike Internet TV (IPTV) service - 'Demand Five'. Five is the last of the major terrestrial broadcasters to introduce a broadband TV service.

The service will offer a mixture of free and subscription content, with imported US shows (CSI) costing 99p to rent for 48 hours and UK shows (Neighbours) being mostly available for free. High-Definition (HD) downloads will also be offered, although at £1.99 each you might be better off watching all of this stuff on normal TV.

The video quality is also said to be higher than that of competing services. On the downside, users will need to use Microsoft's Windows Media Player 11 because of the related Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection. Heavy downloading can also eat into the fair usage and traffic management policies employed by many of the UK’s ISPs, which could cause your service performance to degrade.