Communication Technology Update and Fundamentals, 11th Edition

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IPTV: Streaming Media

Jeffrey S. Wilkinson^*

A little over a decade ago, the term “streaming” was coined to describe moving audio and video files across the Internet and playing them back on a computer. The arguments then were whether you should use Real, Windows, or some other brand-name player. Now, that kind of discussion seems quaint and even romantic, harkening back to the days when the information superhighway was fresh, new, and unexplored. More important, much (if not all) of the content was free.

Streaming has changed, just as the economics of the Internet have changed. We have now entered the new commercial world where Internet video and television have merged to give us IPTV—Internet protocol television—that delivers content to ...