Using the Internet to watch TV programming is now pretty much everyday practise for almost all broadband users and we anticipate we'll be using it even more and more to watch video online as demand increases even further. In one new release it has been stated that Broadband subscriptions across the globe will surpass 536m by 2011, and DSL will account for half the market. The research forecasts that broadband service revenues will exceed £74bn in 2011. In a separate piece of news from Which? it has been revealed that despite internet service providers promising broadband speeds of up to 8Mbps, the average download speed is 2.7Mbps. The consumer magazine found that the lowest speed was just below 0.09Mbps and the highest was 6.7Mbps.

So now that we are watching more TV on the web the appetite to replicate the TV broadcast standard online is growing. Watching webTV is already an excellent experience if you have a good broadband connection - just try any of the on-demand shows that we've produced ourselves at www.webchats.tv to see what I mean, but we still strive to replicate that TV experience whereby the minute you push the on button, or change channel, the picture is there, and there is not even a second's 'buffering'. With the accelerating growth in rich media isn't it about time the service providers lived up to the definition of their title by upping their game to provide broadband of a high and consistent quality while proving they value their customers through improved service levels? The customer is always right, even online.