IPTV, broadband content

IPTV, or Internet Protocol Television, is television via the Internet. A system that has taken off thanks to the continuous, inexorable diffusion of broadband connections and mobile devices – tablets, smartphones – which have become the new cult objects. IPTV essentially offers two types of content: live, delivered simultaneously to multiple users, and Video on Demand, which is distributed to a single user on request. The distribution protocol also changes depending on the type: multicast protocol is used for live streaming (the same signal is sent simultaneously to all users); in the other case unicast protocol is used, a point-to-point connection that connects every single user with the platform offering the service.

But apart from the technical characteristics, IPTV is a phenomenon that has had a significant impact, essentially a “behavioral” one, on the television content market. The domestic centrality of the TV, the so-called linear TV, with its fixed time schedule and shared rituals, has lost its traditional supremacy to anytime, anywhere forms of utilization, with the growing possibility of watching programs wherever a broadband connection is operative. In addition, IPTV has greatly contributed to another phenomenon, the “deconstruction” of the programming schedule: the user is free to select what to watch and when to watch it. A true revolution. In its continuous evolution and growing audience share, IPTV has inspired new business models, platforms, and on-demand services created primarily by television networks, TLC operators, and new players specializing in pay-on-demand TV, mainly films and TV series.