Telewest launches TV on your PC

Want your fix of Living TV, Challenge, Bravo and Trouble but don’t want to subscribe to cable or satellite? Telewest Broadband has just launched a trial service in conjunction with technology partner Narrowstep which enables broadband customers to watch Blueyonder TV on their PC. Of course the idea isn’t new (Sky Sports Broadband has been going for some time). But what’s interesting about Blueyonder TV is that a) it offers four different channels and b) it is free of charge – at least for the time being. Interestingly, it also packages the content as real TV channels, complete with a listings guide and, yes, adverts.

Blueyonder TV currently includes the following four channels:
blueyonder 01: mix of entertainment from Living TV, Bravo, Challenge and Trouble
broadsport: range of specialist sports coverage, from snowboarding to motor racing and sailing
broadwise: internet video guides covering topics such as multi-player gaming and wireless technology
broadway: range of entertainment programming

Comment: Though content is less than compelling (what do you expect for nowt?), image quality was just about watchable full screen via my bog standard half meg broadband connection (Telewest claims that content is played out at speeds of up to 1.8 Meg – handy for when Bulldog Broadband get their act together and connect up my 8Meg fat pipe). Of course you can watch TV in a much smaller window but that means having to put up with those annoying Apple iPod adverts with the dancers around the side of the screen. Whether it’s the future of TV we’re not quite sure yet, but if content improves and broadband speeds carry on increasing at current rates then you can certainly see the potential of the medium.

Chris Price