What’s a web based tv channel look like? Perhaps that’s a pretty strange question coming from me. But I’m concerned that we’re getting so caught up in the jargon (IPTV, video on demand, broadband tv, and so on) that we’re losing sight of what’s really happening here.

The reality is that people are now flocking to the web to watch video. The figures are quite staggering. Let me give you an example: during February’s Super Tuesday US electoral campaign coverage CNN.com boasted 8.3 million unique viewers watching a total of 86.2 million minutes of online video. And we all know about the 11 million streams from the BBC’s iplayer in January.

What’s more all this is actually changing behaviour. A recent informal survey which investigated how North Carolina students at Fayetteville State University, Methodist University and UNC-Pembroke obtained their news on the US presidential campaign, revealed that forty-six percent turn to the internet as their main news source, while 41 percent prefer television. Not one student claimed to rely on print editions of newspapers as a first source.

All this is ironic because newspapers started producing credible online versions in the 1990’s and that process is now accelerating as readership declines. Online publishers nationally and regionally have been revamping their websites to include video and audio to consumer demand. Publishers have adopted a broadcast model by effectively turning online readers into viewers by delivering on-demand over dedicated video channels.

So there are now plenty of video content providers matched by an array of technology. You can watch your episode of the hit show Damages on digital TV, through an IPTV set top box, on your PC or even downloaded through iTunes on to your iPod. And I guess that’s the point. The demand is massive and it doesn’t really matter how you access content or even who you get it from. All that matters for broadcasters of all shapes and sizes is that you stay relevant to your audiences and that you have the correct economic model to thrive in this new environment.