TV is dying, says Google expert

One of the founding fathers of the internet has predicted the end of traditional television. The BBC iPlayer enables viewers to watch their favourite shows on their computers. Vint Cerf, who helped to build the internet while working as a researcher in America, said that television was approaching its "iPod moment"In the same way that people now download their favourite music onto their iPod, he said that viewers would soon be downloading most of their favourite programmes onto their computers.
"85 per cent of all video we watch is pre-recorded, so you can set your system to download it all the time," said Mr Cerf, who is now the vice-president of the Google, the world's largest search engine.
"You're still going to need live television for certain things - like news, sporting events and emergencies - but increasingly it is going to be almost like the iPod, where you download content to look at later."
Although television on demand has not yet become a mainstream activity in the UK, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have all invested vast sums of money in technology which enables viewers to watch their favourite shows on their computers.
Over the next four years, it is thought that the number of videos watched over the internet will quadruple, with people moving from short clips to hour-long programmes. Setting out his vision for the future of the internet, he said he wanted it to reach as many people as possible.
"I want more internet," he said. "I want every one of the six billion people on the planet to be able to connect to the internet - I think they will add things to it that will really benefit us." UK Telegraph August 2007