Internet television in Australia

Internet television in Australia is the digital distribution of movies and television content via the Internet. In Australia, Internet television is provided by five major pay-per-view providers, in addition to several niche television streaming services. Australia's five major free-to-air television networks all offer catch up TV of previously broadcast content to watch via the Internet or via podcasts - drawing on both domestic and foreign content. A feature of Internet television is that a user can view TV or video on demand. Some distributors provide content as downloads, whiles other streaming media; the main difference being that with downloads the end-user must have storage capacity for the content on their device and must wait for the download to be completed before the content can be viewed, while streamed content can be viewed almost immediately, but is not stored for a later second viewing.

Whether downloaded or streamed, video files over the Internet are usually metered in Australia, with most ISPs setting download quotas which can limit the downloads that a subscriber can make without incurring additional costs. ISPs also provide plans with unlimited downloads. Some ISPs offer downloads on a quota-free basis for partnered television services, which is also known as "unmetered" content.

FetchTV launched a cable-like subscription service in 2010, offering English and foreign-language pay-TV channels, some on-demand content and the functionality of a personal video recorder at a cost of about $20 to $30. The ABC has also held talks regarding its on-demand "iview" content being shown on Fetch TV.

iiNet launched the service in July 2010. Internode also launched an Early Adopters Trial program for a select number of customers in September 2010 with plans to release to the general public late 2010/early 2011 and Adam Internet announced their plans to launch the service only days after the Internode trial had begun. Note that FetchTV is NOT related to FetchTV UK.

FlipTV is an IPTV company in Australia delivering worldwide content via the internet direct to a home TV for viewing through television programming.

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