Comcast Test May Lead to TV Programming Delivered Via Laptop or Video Game Console

Comcast is testing a system that would let users replace their set-top box with any Internet-ready device, like a laptop or video game console.

This isn't the same tech that lets you watch live TV on your laptop, or use your iPad as a program guide. Instead, it uses the Comcast broadband network to deliver a signal to your television via VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).

Testbed for the VoIP delivery system

Comcast will use MIT as a testbed for the VoIP delivery system, starting this fall, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

First, as Journal reporter Jessica Vascellaro notes, VoIP is the same innovation that AT&T's U-Verse and various smaller companies have used to make an end run around pay-TV providers. That is, Comcast proposes to beat competitors at their own packet-switched game.

Second, though Comcast says it has no plans to offer the service in geographic areas where it is not currently the cable TV provider, using VoIP would make it technically possible. If this happens, Time Warner, Cablevision and other competitors could kiss their monopoly goodbye.

Dan Frommer at Business Insider says that works out to about 8 hours 45 minutes of VOD per month, compared to Nielsen's March numbers for streaming Netflix users and Hulu. "And all of these are all in all peanuts compared to the more than 150 hours of TV that the average American watches per month," Frommer adds.