Don't throw away your TV set just yet

What's on TV tonight? It's a question that is easily answered today; but what will be on television in five years' time – and how we'll view it – is much less clear. For while most agree that the future of television is online, the exact form that this will take is still unknown. To start with, there is much confusion over what 'online TV' actually is.

This is because it comprises two sets of technologies: Website TV, which is video viewed via a web browser (think YouTube and services such as blinkBox.com, Joost and JumpTV.com), and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), which provides on-demand video services over broadband networks (this works as a replacement for satellite television).

The two are developing in parallel, each looking to 'find its feet' in the market as more becomes known about levels of consumer demand and popularity with advertisers. In the Middle East this market is especially immature: the response of many UAE television companies I have spoken to is just 'watch this space'. But it is remarkable that most television companies in the region do not even have a Website TV service. One exception is the City Seven channel, which currently has a seven-day video archive of its news programme.

Other TV companies also have plans to launch a web-based 'watch-again' service, perhaps envious of BBC's immensely successful iPlayer service. MBC's Dr Ammar Bakkar told me that the company pulled its Website TV service because it is "a very weak business model".

However, it is reintroducing this service, which will include both 'steamed' live TV and a 'watch again' service, and which "should be happening in the fourth quarter of this year".

IPTV is a much more complex matter. The service is often bundled in with broadband deals; both UAE telecoms companies provide this service. However, one feels that the real advantage of such technology – the ability to request 'video on demand' (VoD) – has not yet exploited. For example, etisalat's 'e-Vision' service – which supports IPTV – will not provide VoD until the end of this year.

MBC's Dr Bakkar told me that the company has "contracts with all the commercial [IPTV] companies out there… we make some money, commercially it's ok." However, he added that "we're still in the stage of trial and error, which means risky investment. The essential question is whether viewers prefer VoD or steamed TV. We don't know which one yet."

There are many barriers to IPTV services that are specific to this region. They include a relatively slow broadband network, a dominance of existing satellite services (both paid-for and received illegally), a lack of decent homegrown content, and the fact that satellite television is largely free from government control, while IPTV would be monitored.

So to repeat the TV companies: 'watch this space'. There's life in the old set yet.