IPTV (Internet Protocol TeleVision) is starting to creep its way on the web. We’re starting to see more and more TV shows pop-up as their own little mini-stations – plus the whole miro and joost thing.

TV Shows via the Internet
I was looking at Mashable this morning and saw a banner ad for The IT Room, a new IPTV show starting sometime soon. It seems like a take off of the British show The IT Crowd, it really feels to me by watching the promos that it is a big media company trying to play small. The props are almost too good and then “dumbed-down” to look bad. (So my mini-prediction is this will turn out to be one of the netowrks trying to be cute and viral – you read it here first.) But either way – the concept is solid.

Another show gaining traction, which is backed by MySpace,is called QuarterLife. As describe on the site, QuarterLife is:

What is quarterlife about?
Both the new online series and social network take on the crucial years between 20 and 30, when so many of life’s important decisions are made. The “quarterlife” series tells the ongoing stories of six creative people in their twenties. As with Herskovitz’s and Zwick’s earlier television series, at the center of “quarterlife” is a commitment to realism, the recognition of universal human themes through the truthful depiction of the way young people speak, work, think, love, argue, and just goof around. Starting with Dylan, a young woman whose overly truthful video blog (on quarterlife.com of course) spills the closest secrets of her friends, the show’s characters – filmmakers Danny and Jed, actress-bartender Lisa, geek-extraordinaire Andy, and still-tied-to-her-parents Debra – chart the sometimes excruciating, sometimes comic, often emotional experiences that comprise coming of age as part of the digital generation.

I really like where they are going with this, they offer up the idea this is a show – but the characters from the show will allow exist virtually:

Can I be quarterlife friends with characters from show?
A profile for each character on the show exists on quarterlife.com. Don’t be shy. Go to their profile and send them a Friend Request.

Talk about blurring the lines of reality. Without showing my age too much – this seems like the modern day 90210 or OC – but utilizing the “media of choice” and social networking for the medium.

Miro and Joost thing:
If you’re not familiar with Miro and Joost – they are IPTV projects on the web.

Joost is a fairly new product which was created by the guys who built Skype. They have 15,000 shows on their “network” which you get by having a broadband connection and downloading their free client. And understand – we’re not talking 15,000 shows of internet crap…channels from CBS, VH1, ComedyCentral, Yes Netowrk are popping up – this is a serious deal.

Miro, formally known as democracy player, is more of the open source alternative. Miro has no DRM and aggregates content from others instead of trying to control the content.

It will be very interesting to see who wins – here is a chart from Miro (so possible a little biased) that shows how they feel they are better. Let me tell you – when I read it…it sure feels like Miro is new media and Joost stole too much from the media dinosaurs.

So what?
Well – things are interesting, the big gotcha right now has to be the state of broadband in the US. It stinks. Until broadband speeds catch up (see Google, Microsoft, Verizon and the 700 MHz band) we will see these independent show flourish. Plus, if you think of the cost to produce one of these – it has to be a fraction of a full blown TV show. When the broadband speeds get there we will see IPTV really get some legs.

Until then, mainstream TV station need to figure out how to get their content “on the wire” and available for consumers to get it any way they want, when they want it.