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It's shaping up to be an interesting season for TV companies. On one level it is business as usual. The TV trading season has just kicked off, autumn schedules are underway and there is the usual pressure on ITV over its haemorrhaging audience. But on another level there are murmurings - namely, that a long-anticipated revolution might just be poised to take place.

Digital switchover is looming in 2012, but many industry figures predict the TV landscape will change long before that.

Over the past few months, technology has moved on apace and a new era, when television can be watched anytime, anyplace, anywhere, is becoming a reality.

Already, the average family no longer needs to gather around the set in the corner of the room and squabble over what channel to watch.

Yes, dad might be watching the box, but the children might be looking at TV comedy clips on their mobile, downloading next week's episode of their favourite show on their PC, or checking out the latest video mash-ups on YouTube.

Mum might be out with friends because she knows she can watch EastEnders later, thanks to a personal video recorder.

But in the next six months, things will change even further. Several major broadcasters are on the verge of launching video-on-demand and "catch-up" TV, making parts of their extensive programme archives available online.

At the same time, convergence between the internet and TV is finally approaching. The launch of broadband-enabled set-top boxes, via products such as BT Vision, which is set to launch imminently, will bring internet TV straight into the television set.

And when the TV world merges with the internet world, anything could happen. No wonder major changes are afoot in online media.

When Google announced its acquisition of video website YouTube last month, Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, said: "If you believe it's the future of TV, it's clearly worth $1.6bn." The repercussions for TV are enormous. In the US, NBC has just announced a radical restructuring as it faces up to the consequences of digital expansion. In Europe, the EU's Audiovisual Media Services Directive is hurrying to regulate the new TV landscape by creating a level playing field between traditional broadcasters and the growing market of video-on-demand services and internet-based channels.

But some say the TV industry has yet to realise what's fully in store. "People still underestimate just how rapidly this is going to change," warns Andy Duncan, chief executive of Channel 4.

"We are moving to the ultimate audience-led world. Over the next five to 10 years, we will get to point where a third, or maybe even a half, of TV will be time-shifted."

Andrew Walmsley, co-founder of digital media agency I-Level, emphasises that in the new landscape anyone can be a player, whether they are making and commissioning programmes, buying in and re-purposing content, or letting users create their own.

For advertisers, says Walmsley, the big opportunity will be "a fundamental shift of emphasis in what the internet represents as an advertising medium. It will change in consumers' minds from an information to an entertainment medium".

But there will also be hurdles to overcome. The TV audience of mass-market brands is being top sliced, says Walmsley, as young upscale viewers turn their attention to the internet and multi-channel. A major challenge, he says, will be that most broadcast ad and media agencies are ill-equipped to deal with the realities of the new world of TV.

So what are the key developments to look out for?

THE BROADCASTERS

BBC

Many believe the launch of the BBC's iPlayer, developed with Microsoft, could be the tipping point that moves ordinary viewers to a new way of watching television.

"The BBC is one of the few players that has the scale and the content to make consumers shift their behaviour," says I-Level's Walmsley.

The iPlayer is still subject to a public value test through communications regulator Ofcom and the BBC's governors, which will continue until next March. If it is approved, it should launch then. Initially, iPlayer will allow viewers to "catch up" on BBC TV programmes up to seven days after transmission, downloading the programme to their PC, then potentially moving it to their TV set or mobile phone to watch when they want. Separately, the BBC will pilot opening up its massive archive of programmes, via bbc.co.uk, starting next spring.

But it is the long-term future of iPlayer that is of real interest to commercial TV. The vision mooted at the Edinburgh TV Festival this year by Ashley Highfield, the BBC's director of new media, is that by 2008, iPlayer could act as a distribution service that other broadcasters could buy into, giving viewers access to a swathe of different content.

CHANNEL 4

Channel 4 has pioneered on-demand TV viewing, as well as making content available across multiple digital channels.

In May it became the first broadcaster to launch a video-on-demand service, making full-length episodes of Lost and Desperate Housewives available online and via cable. It also launched a C4 simulcast in June at www.channel4.com/livetv, and broadcasts to mobiles via a mobile portal, allowing viewers to download clips, logos, and mobile-sized "slices" of favourite programmes.

Now it is set to launch a full video-on-demand service. It has just signed a three-year deal with NTL:Telewest to make C4 content available on demand across the cable service, for up to seven days after it is first broadcast. Meanwhile, its video-on-demand to PC service is set to launch imminently. While the broadcaster will not reveal exact details, C4 chief Duncan told Media Week it will be the first "full fledged" video-on-demand service, will involve a "substantial volume of programming" and will operate as a "mixed model" with a definite role for advertising to play.

Duncan adds that while he believes "catch-up" TV will be the most compelling proposition for TV viewers in the short term, there will also be a role for early views and previews of programming.

ITV

Meanwhile, under increasing pressure over the erosion of its younger audiences, ITV insists it is well prepared for the massive changes ahead.

It has signed deals with both 3 and BT Movio to carry simulcasts of ITV1 on mobile phones, and has trialled a number of digital services, including broadband streaming of UEFA Champions League matches, exclusive clips of Love Island available for mobile, and a podcast/vodcast version of The South Bank Show.

It has also announced a nationwide rollout of its community broadband TV service, ITV Local, which was trialled in Brighton and Hastings. But the big push for ITV will be the rollout of its broadband portal, which is expected in the first quarter of 2007. With a proposition of "all of ITV anytime, and more", its offer will include a simulcast of ITV's channels, and 30-day "catch-up" TV, as well as previews of individual programmes.

There will also be access to archives, made-for-broadband content, and user-generated content, available online and then direct to TV as broadband TV becomes available.

At the same time, ITV is working on its own broadband-compatible digital media player.

Jane Marshall, commercial development director of ITV Consumer, says the channel sees two co-existing behaviours/habits at the moment. "Viewers will continue to watch big branded entertainment and drama on the biggest terrestrial channels, something that will be supported as Freeview overtakes Sky later this year to become the largest digital platform," she says. "On mobile and online, however, the major development that interests us is the increasing use of video, whether uploading or downloading.

"ITV intends to bring these two things together - we will leverage our big entertainment shows to create a broadband proposition, including full channel streaming, video-on-demand, user-uploaded content and much more besides."

SKY

Sky has also been active in the on-demand arena. It is already allowing Sky Digital viewers to download movies and sport clips free to their PCs and and has just announced it will broadcast series three of Lost via broadband when it launches on Sky One later this year.

It also offers Sky Mobile TV, a package of around 20 mobile TV channels, to Vodafone 3G mobile customers.

For the future, its new Sky+ high-definition box is compatible with broadband, via an Ethernet port. Sky says this gives it the potential to offer a wide range of on-demand programmes to customers, including a programme archive, but it has yet to announce a timescale for launch.

FIVE

Finally, Five has come rather later to the party than some of its rivals, but last month it launched its first video-on-demand service, Five Download. Viewers can download new episodes of CSI: Miami a week before airing, and eventually the entire CSI back catalogue will be available on demand.

THE OTHER PLAYERS

Aside from the major broadcasters, a host of other TV players look set to profit from the internet TV revolution.

As consumers are faced with more channels than ever before, ways to navigate them are going to become vital.

Red Bee Media (formerly BBC Broadcast) is a key player in IPTV with its development of Sherpa, an electronic programming guide (EPG) that is being incorporated into set-top boxes, ISPs and mobiles, so viewers can search all TV content available online.

The tool incorporates sophisticated search functions such as detailed data on what's in the programme.

For example, explains Red Bee media commercial director John Pink, a viewer could search under "chocolate fudge cake" and pull up any programme containing a feature on that subject.

Meanwhile, many specialist channels are also becoming available online, targeted at niche, but potentially lucrative, audiences. These include Aggregator, which has launched MoeTV, a channel for Russian speakers in the UK, and Cube TV, an interactive broadband platform for TV channels, which plans to develop a portal offering content from both mainstream and niche channels.

Another player is Narrowstep, which creates streamed internet TV channels for clients including ITV Local, satellite and cable broadcasters, and even individual brands such as Land Rover (through a deal with WPP's sports consultancy arm Performance). The majority of programming is scheduled TV and most channels are ad-funded, with some premium pay-per-view services. Narrowstep's head of commercial operations, Dilip Shukla, insists there will still be room for niche channels when video-on-demand becomes widely available.

"Our vision is that the future of TV is about engaged communities on the internet," he says. "The amount of broad spectrum content out there is diminishing and even those who look for mass audiences will also have to look to niche offerings."

But perhaps the real unknown quantity for internet TV is the potential of user-generated content. This is already huge online as the success of MySpace and YouTube proves, and broadcasters have unsurprisingly grasped the idea. Forthcoming initiatives include Flextech youth channel Trouble's launch of a TV show based entirely on content created by viewers via a website.

Fame TV, meanwhile, is launching a user-generated content TV channel available on Sky, allowing viewers to upload video clips, pictures and texts via mobile phones and the internet.

The message is clear: in the new TV landscape, anyone can be a broadcaster - so traditional TV had better make sure it is involved

JARGON BUSTER

VOD - video-on-demand

Simulcast - simultaneous broadcast of programmes or events across more than one medium

Podcasting/vodcasting - internet broadcasting of video/audio files for playback on MP3 players

IPTV - internet protocol television

CONVERGENCE - IS IT WHAT WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR?

Internet protocol TV (IPTV) is coming. Soon, online content will be streamed straight into viewers' living rooms without the need to go onto a PC first.

One of the key drivers of this change is likely to be BT Vision, which is set to launch within the next few weeks, although the major marketing effort will not start until 2007.

The service will be offered, initially to existing BT Broadband customers, via a broadband-enabled set-top box. This will allow viewers access to all Freeview channels, plus a selection of mainstream and niche entertainment channels for which BT has signed more than 30 content deals. The box also includes a digital video recorder for viewers to store programmes and will have a "catch-up" TV function so that, as broadcasters make their archives available online, viewers can choose when to watch programmes.

A spokesman for BT says one of the system's unique benefits is that its video-on-demand function will be available as pay-as-you-go. The only upfront cost will be for the set-top box, likely to be priced around £100. BT hopes this will appeal to viewers reluctant to subscribe to a digital TV package such as Sky.

Some media commentators believe BT Vision will win over customers to on-demand viewing in the short term, stealing share from the likes of Sky and Freeview. But they are not convinced such packages will succeed long term, especially when IPTV systems become available that bypass the set-top box.

John Pink, commercial director of Red Bee Media, says that offerings like BT Vision are essentially "walled gardens" that choose the consumers' viewing for them.

"We saw the same phenomenon with AOL and Compuserve in the early days of the web," he says. "The risk for IPTV-based platforms is that the consumers will want more choice."

I-Level's Andrew Walmsley concurs: "In the longer term, consumers will just want connectivity - why would you want to be tied down to just one provider?"

There is also still a debate over whether viewers will be more inclined to search for and download programmes via their TV or computer/mobile phone. While hybrid TV/PC devices are becoming available, Pink says that research suggests viewers will eventually be more inclined to search for shows while at work on their PC, or out and about on their mobile, then watch it on their TV set later, having transferred it using software such as Windows Media Connect to link the two devices.