I want my IP-TV!

Excerpts from a Wired article this morning.

Coming soon to a screen near you: IPTV….

While traditional cable systems devote a slice of bandwidth for each
channel and then cablecast them all out at once, IPTV uses a "switched
video" architecture in which only the channel being watched at that
moment is sent over the network, freeing up capacity for other features
and more interactivity….

In the United States, big telephone companies like SBC Communications,
BellSouth and Verizon Communications plan to start launching IPTV
systems as early as this year….

"The entire world is going IP," said Alcatel’s West. "If the cable
operators don’t start investing in IP, they’re going to have some
significant cost issues over the long haul."