ITV to stream TV online

ITV has become the latest broadcaster to announce that it is to launch a broadband television service.

A couple of days after Channel 4's announcement that its broadband television service is now up and running, viewers will also be able to download live TV from ITV by April.

This should soon be followed by the BBC broadband TV service, iPlayer, which is has been on trial and is expected to be launched formally in the coming months.

Like the Channel 4 service, viewers will also be able to catch-up with the last 30 days programmes. The company is also expected to feature previews of programmes as well as other exclusive online content.

Unlike Channel 4 however which is charging between 99 pence and £1.99, most of ITV's catalogue will be free – at least at the moment except for Champions League football. It already offers some games for £1.99 .

Steve Weller, head of communications services at uSwitch, the independent price comparison and switching service said: "Today’s announcement that ITV is launching a free-to-view broadband television service is fantastic news for consumers.

"While the service is initially free, it will be interesting to see if ITV starts to charge for premium programmes in the future and how it will meet the demands of the advertisers which it has so relied upon in the past.”

Weller also warned that as IPTV services grow it would also place a real strain on broadband providers and the speed of people's broadband speeds

"We won’t see families giving up their TV’s just yet to watch programmes around their PC screen – only a small majority have their PC connected to their TV … [but] the impact of these new services is going to place a strain on broadband companies as they try to deliver the speed and capacity to give customers access to all of these programmes.

"The current speeds and download limits will need to be significantly increased to enable these new services to be enjoyed by the mass market, currently satisfied with a 2Mbp/s broadband service and a 2Gb download limit.