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A decade or so later, another channel (TV2) was introduced and the public's viewing options doubled overnight.

Since then we've seen a steady increase in the number of free to air (FTA) and subscription-based TV channels until now we're spoilt for choice -- although the old saying "five hundred channels and nothing to watch" rings strangely true.

The way the TV channel model works is pretty similar to other forms of publishing like newspapers, radio stations and magazines. In effect, the broadcaster collects together a whole lot of content they hope the audience will want to watch then they send them out, usually interspersed with the all-important advertisements that FTA broadcasters need to pay the bills.

But is this model about to crack under the strain of new developments in digital electronics?

Already there are a growing number of people who are turning the TV off and turning on their computer or games console instead.

The net, the DVD player, the X-box, the PlayStation, now they all compete with TV for people's attention and, it would appear, they're starting to make some important inroads.

While they're still not really much of a threat to Sky TV or FTA, any broadcaster who ignores the fact that this situation could change rapidly in just a few short years is taking a big risk.

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But if the current TV broadcasting model is under threat, what will it look like in a decade's time?

Perhaps the biggest clue lies in the massive hike in DVD player sales during the past 24 months or so.

Driven by falling prices, a very significant percentage of households now own a DVD player and what's more, they use them.

The smarter folks out there have discovered that for the price of a SkyTV subscription they can hire an armful of movies on DVD each month and enjoy them without irritating watermarks on the screen. What's more, they can get more up to date releases at a price that is lower or matches that of the Pay-per-view channels on SkyTV.

What we're looking at here is a manual form of video on demand (VOD).

When the wife demands to watch a recent-release movie at home, hubby jumps on the car and races down to VideoEz and comes back with the appropriate disk.

No more scanning channels while muttering "500 channels and nothing to watch"

Now just wait until that trip to the video store is replaced by a few keypresses!

Once we've actually got broadband to the home (and I"m talking about 1Mbps or greater) then it really will be practical to log onto the video store's website and book the movie of your choice to be downloaded to your PVR ready for viewing that evening or the next day.

But we're not just talking about movies here -- we're talking about a "build it yourself TV channel".

Imagine you're interested in news and current events, car racing, a bit of footy, and the odd recent release movie or two. By using a video-on-demand booking system, you could set up your own programming list so that when you sat down tomorrow night you got to see: the six o'clock news (at 7pm after tea), last night's Formula 1 race, the last All Blacks test game and The School Of Rock movie.

No need to flick channels or put up with ads -- you just turn on your TV and your PVR and out come the programmes and movies you ordered. What's more, you can rewind and fast-forward as if they had all be recorded on tape.

Suddenly it doesn't matter what the broadcasters want to send you because you've got the power to pick and choose just the stuff you want in order to build your own private virtual TV channel.

It's a good situation for programme producers too. Instead of pitching their wares to the broadcasters, they can simply make them available through the VOD system. This would mean you could pick up all sorts of esoteric stuff that might otherwise never see the light of day.

Miss a *local* school sports event on the weekend?

If someone video-taped it and made it available through the VOD system then you could just add it to your programming list and watch it at your leisure.

Want to become a TV producer? Just create your own programmes and make them available through the VOD system. If enough people watch them, you might even make some money!

So, the TV system of the future will be driven, not by the broadcasters but by the viewers -- and that's the way it should be. Maybe CanWest have decided to list on the sharemarket *now* for a very good reason.

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