hrough the Internet. From the consumer's point of view, the experience with IPTV is very similar to the experience with cable or satellite. One of the main advantages of IPTV is its two-way capability, which traditional TV distribution technologies do not have. Another benefit is its point-to-point distri- bution, which allows each viewer to view individual broadcasts. This functionality enables stream control (pausing, forwarding, rewinding, and SO on) and a free selec- tion of programming similar to what the Web offers. As mentioned earlier, IPTV enables providers to offer more services over the same pipe (e.g., triple-play services). Of course there are alternatives to IPTV, encompassing traditional TV distribu- tion technologies such as terrestrial, satellite, and cable TV. Because cable can be upgraded to two-way capability, it can also carry IPTV. IPTV Versus Streaming Media Streaming media is an almost identical server-side technology to IPTV, but it termi- nates on a PC rather than on a TV. Streaming media is still difficult to sell to broad- casters and is not a hot topic of discussion because it does not leverage the TV sets Chapter 9 IP Services already out there. The general perspective is that if you're a television professional, computers are not really part of your world. In fact, from a broadcaster's point of view, it would be better if computers simply disappeared because they take away traditional TV viewers. With IPTV, the network operator controls the entire path-from the time the content is assembled to the delivery of that content to the consumer's TV set. The operator can set the QoS and control the security. In the streaming media model, the signal is likely to traverse different providers' networks, SO the network opera- tor doesn't have the same control over bandwidth and QoS. The deployment of IPTV is greatly affected by the need for end-to-end control. IPTV does not involve a signal being sent from one end of the world to the other; it is regional or local, and IPTV is therefore being 