Last week was a big one for internet TV. A study came out showing that almost half of European broadband users are watching at least some television on their computers.

Joost, from the founders of Skype, launched its 180-channel internet TV service. 

The BBC got the go-ahead to make the most of its TV schedule downloadable, and Britain's ITV said it too would soon be launching an internet TV offering, the most comprehensive from a commercial broadcaster, it claimed.

Yet despite the flurry of activity, there's still the question of how soon internet TV will catch with the masses. The technology suffers a major drawback: You still have to watch it sitting in front of a computer.

The short answer is not anytime soon.

“Our view is that IPTV isn’t really going to take off hugely until you can watch it on the TV,” opines Rebecca Jennings, senior analyst at Forrester Research, and it could be years before TV sets designed to air internet TV are widely adopted.

But there's a somewhat longer answer: It may not matter.

Major players are jumping in anyhow, anxious to get a solid footing for the time when internet TV does catch with the masses.  

"It is not so much that there is huge pent-up demand from people who missed a program, but it is about being seen as being leaders and maintaining control," says Jennings.

What long held the big players back was the fear that putting their content on the web would inevitably result in it being splashed all over the internet. They've gotten over that. Says she: “It is an interesting milestone for IPTV that they are brave enough to be doing this now."

The services announced by the BBC and ITV are far reaching.

The BBC’s service, which it calls iPlayer, will stream most of the content from BBC channels, and viewers will be able to download much of the BBC's schedule for up to seven days, barring classical recordings, book-readings and some films. The viewer then has up to 30 days to watch it. The service is expected to launch later this year.

ITV's internet TV service, which will be ad-supported, will offer live streaming of its channels and provide viewers a 30-day catchup period to stream shows they missed. It will also put up an archive of the best of its programming. 

ITV claims its offering is a world first. “Some are already streaming their channels, some are providing catch-up, and some building their archive, but ITV.com will provide all three,” says Michael Grade, executive chairman of ITV, in a statement.

Joost's service, also ad-supported, is truly global, having launched with some 32 big-name advertisers and content from such major U.S. providers as CBS, Viacom and Turner Broadcasting.

And in Europe at least, these new services should find a welcome audience, suggests a new study from Motorola, released last week, which found that 45 percent of European broadband users are already watching some TV on the internet. The survey questioned 2,500 broadband users in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, with the French leading at 59 percent, followed by the Italians and Brits. Germans watched the least, at just 33 percent.

What the survey results did not reveal was how much time viewers were spending watching internet TV.

For one, Jennings believes people are turning to internet TV to watch things they can't find on broadcast, not out of preference. Says she: “From an internet TV point of view, people do watch video online, but they aren’t going to watch hours of it because it is not a comparably pleasurable experience. People watch internet TV at the moment because they can’t get it anywhere else.”

Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended April 29, the top five parent companies were Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Time Warner and News Corp. Online for the 13th straight week. The top five brands were Google, Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, AOL Media Network and Microsoft for the second straight week.

Experian moved ahead of NexTag in first place for advertising with 5.3 million impressions to the latter’s 4.12 million, both down from last week. With 26.01 million ads served, Yahoo was again the top advertising site, more than tripling No. 2 MySpace at 7 million.

Sessions per person per week were even to last week at 16, with domains visited per person down one to 37. Average PC time per person per week was flat at 16 hours and 28 minutes.

Top 25 parent companies Through April 29
#	Parent	Unique Audience (000)	Reach %	Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1	Microsoft	84,344	61.6	0:39:50
2	Google	81,315	59.4	0:29:59
3	Yahoo!	75,298	55.0	1:02:15
4	Time Warner	68,415	50.0	1:31:23
5	News Corp. Online	43,546	31.8	0:45:12
6	eBay	34,308	25.1	0:49:55
7	InterActiveCorp	28,647	20.9	0:12:43
8	Landmark Communications	22,501	16.4	0:19:49
9	Apple Computer	21,777	15.9	0:32:20
10	Amazon	21,215	15.5	0:13:05
11	Wikimedia Foundation	20,589	15.0	0:08:34
12	RealNetworks, Inc.	19,267	14.1	0:20:34
13	Walt Disney Internet Group	18,094	13.2	0:21:24
14	New York Times Company	17,657	12.9	0:08:13
15	AT&T Inc.	13,178	9.6	0:11:10
16	United Online	13,082	9.6	0:27:30
17	Bank of America	12,247	9.0	0:21:22
18	CNET Networks	11,757	8.6	0:06:23
19	Viacom Digital	11,294	8.3	0:24:29
20	Verizon Communications	10,666	7.8	0:21:28
21	E.W. Scripps Company	10,128	7.4	0:05:36
22	Comcast Corp.	9,998	7.3	0:32:14
23	General Electric	9,355	6.8	0:11:23
24	Gannett	9,211	6.7	0:09:50
25	Wal-Mart Stores	8,868	6.5	0:11:48
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

Top 25 brands Through April 29
	Parent	Unique Audience (000)	Reach %	Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
1	Google	76,699	56.0	0:24:20
2	Yahoo!	74,849	54.7	1:02:22
3	MSN/Windows Live	62,578	45.7	0:39:13
4	AOL Media Network	58,480	42.7	1:40:11
5	Microsoft	55,792	40.8	0:16:06
6	Fox Interactive Media	37,318	27.3	0:49:58
7	eBay	30,006	21.9	0:50:52
8	Apple	21,777	15.9	0:32:20
9	Weather Channel	20,484	15.0	0:20:51
10	Wikipedia	20,462	15.0	0:08:35
11	YouTube	20,306	14.8	0:22:08
12	Real Network	19,267	14.1	0:20:34
13	Ask Search Network	17,717	12.9	0:14:19
14	Amazon	17,078	12.5	0:12:53
15	Blogger	12,327	9.0	0:09:24
16	Bank of America	11,790	8.6	0:21:26
17	About.com	11,582	8.5	0:03:10
18	CNN	11,072	8.1	0:17:41
19	Comcast	8,447	6.2	0:37:04
20	Chase	8,392	6.1	0:17:05
21	Wal-Mart Stores