As the BBC stride boldly into the future with the iPlayer, students seem to be abandoning their television sets en-masse in favour of downloading content to their computers. Are the web-savvy students shunning the box at the forefront of a shift that will mean TV's days are numbered?

One Manchester student seemed to sum it up: "I’ve never bothered to get a TV Licence or a television the whole time I’ve been at university.

“It just seems totally pointless. All the decent BBC things are on iPlayer for free and I can pretty much get hold of any other stuff I want on the internet – you just have to know where to look."

A survey conducted by Contentworx as far back as 2006 found that nearly one third of young British individuals watch television programmes on devices other than televisions, largely computers. Another study by the European Interactive Advertising Association last year revealed that 16 to 24-year-olds now also spend 10 per cent more time on the internet than they do watching television.

Add to that a number of other factors that look set to further compound matters the future looks uncertain. BT’s recently-announced national roll-out of ADSL2+ broadband will enable internet connection speeds far greater than those presently possible, thereby allowing higher-quality television streaming across the web, while plummeting laptop prices and the proliferation of wireless internet will render accessing video using computers cheaper and more portable than ever before.

Students, with their laptops and lightening-fast internet connections, are well-placed to take advantage.

So, are the days of television as we know it truly numbered? Simon Nelson, the BBC's Controller of Multiplatform, does not think so. “I believe that TV consumption will continue to be via TV sets and TV-based technology for a long time,” he said. “The number of people watching traditional linear television still vastly outstrips simultaneous internet viewing figures.”

But even Mr Nelson is pragmatic. “There’s no question that, particularly amongst young audiences, traditional forms of media are being fundamentally challenged by the internet,” he admitted. “So rather than seeing television as tied to a box in the living room we want to make it accessible from as many different devices as possible.”

But what of students and other groups exploiting this initiative by accessing BBC content solely for free over the internet, thereby circumventing the licence fee? “Numbers accessing in that way are extremely small”, he insists.

Yet it is beyond dispute that television networks are beginning to awaken to the possibilities posed by the internet and its youthful user base.

The BBC already “simulcasts” BBC3 online alongside digital television, while that channel’s comedic and quirky programme offerings have enjoyed considerably more ratings success on iPlayer than they ever have on multi-channel digital television, largely as a result of the younger audience that the platform has cultivated.

Channel 4’s cross-platform marketing for popular teen drama Skins has been a huge success. Mr Nelson argues that such examples point to a complementary role for internet broadcasting to traditional television in the future.

“The internet will become the dominant way by which people discover lesser-known programmes that they might not have considered before,” he said.

Kangaroo – a joint effort between ITV, Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide to effectively produce an equivalent of Freeview-on-demand for broadband internet – will further strengthen the position of the online domain, representing a central location through which you can access material from all the biggest providers at any time.

Whether or not such an effective and all-encompassing venture as Kangaroo will be to the benefit or detriment of traditional broadcasting, of course, remains to be seen. The revolution has certainly begun:but will it be televised?

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