Traditional TV times will end. Television was approaching its “iPod moment”
In the same way that people now download their favourite music onto their iPod， viewers would soon be downloading most of favourite programmes onto their computers.
85 per cent of all video we watch is pre-recorded， so you can set your system to download it all the time.
You’re still going to need live television for certain things─like news， sporting events and emergencies①─but increasingly it is going to be almost like the iPod， where you download content to look at later.
Although television on demand has not yet become a mainstream activity in the UK， the BBC， ITV and Channel 4 have all invested vast sums of money in technology which enables viewers to watch their favorite shows on their computers.
But some critics， including some internet service providers， have warned that the internet will collapse under the strain of millions of people downloading programmes at the same time.
Over the next years， it is thought that the number of videos watched over the internet will quadruple②， with people moving from short clips③ to hour─long programmes.
Broadband companies claim that the service will cause “traffic jams”， which will cost millions of pounds to sort out.
But somebody opposed it with great proof， saying that is “scare④ tactics”.
① emergencyn. 紧急情况；突然事件；非常时刻[U][C]
② quadruplev. 成为四倍
③ clipn. 夹；钳；回形针
④ scareadj. ［口］骇人的；用以吓唬人的
电视时代将逝
传统的电视时代将结束。电视正走向iPod时代。
与现在人们将喜欢的音乐下载到iPod里一样，电视观众们很快就能将他们喜欢的大多数电视节目下载到电脑中去了。
我们观看的85%的视频都是预先录制的，所以可以随时下载。
尽管人们仍需要新闻、体育比赛和紧急事件等的现场直播，但‘iPod模式’将日益兴起，人们可以把节目下载到里面供以后观看。
尽管电视在线点播在英国仍未成为一种主流模式，但BBC、ITV和Channel 4已投入大量资金研发能让观众在电脑上看他们喜爱的电视节目的技术。
但包括一些互联网服务提供商在内的一些批评人士警告说，如果几百万人在同一时间下载节目，互联网会因无法承受压力而崩溃。
在未来时段内，互联网上的视频数量将翻两番，人们所能观看的视频也将从现在的短片 “升级”为长达一小时的节目。
这一服务会导致 “网络交通堵塞”，而 “疏通”成本则会达到几百万英镑。
但是，有人有力地反驳了这一观点，说这是 “恐吓战术”。