20 or 30 years age, cable television was somewhat of a luxury item, and only offered 10 or 20 tv stations. For most other folks without cable television, the rabbit ears on top of your set brought you only 3 or 4 local stations. And, personal computers were not considered major sources of media entertainment.

Fast forward to 2008, and technology like pc satellite tv can bring up to 6,000 worldwide tv channels to anyone with a computer and an internet connection. And do this for no monthly charge – only a one-time small fee for the proprietary software – probably no more than you'd pay to rent a month's worth of dvds at the movie rental store!

Here are some interesting facts about pc satellite tv;

You don't need to be a technical genius to install and run the software. Most, if not all companies that offer the ability to view television through your computer include full instruction on how to install, configure and use the software. It isn't complicated. At a very minimum, your computer probably has Microsoft Media Player and Macromedia Flash – both of these built-in software programs can enable your pc to be a tv!

There are no recurring monthly fees for pc satellite tv. As mentioned above, there is a small bit of proprietary software that is installed on your computer's hard drive that will make it easy to access the thousands of tv channels the internet has to offer. But, you pay no monthly fees to watch your favorite tv programs – sports, drama, movies – even kids shows! There's something for the whole family.

Installation is very simple. As with any software downloads that you might perform, make sure that your virus protection is turned on, and that the site is a trusted site. Always read the instructions, sometimes in a “readme.txt" file, sometimes in a help file at the vendor's site.

Set up of the software is fairly simple – again, just read the instructions. As you become accustomed to the program, you can explore more efficient ways to perform simple tasks. Most of the pc satellite tv programs available will only work with Microsoft XP and Vista operating systems. Unfortunately, the graphical capability of older operating systems are not capable of working with streaming video. Also, included in your later operating systems are programs such as Media Player that make possible the viewing of tv from the internet.

Software companies that make it easier to access pc satellite tv don't have any direct control over the channels available on the internet. This means that channels can disappear, and better ones can appear at any time. Again, new channels don't cost any extra.

With most software systems, the ability to pre-set channels that you like to watch is built-in. With this feature, you won't miss any of your favorite shows.

Finally, there are no monthly fees (aside from a small initial payment for the software), equipment to purchase or satellite dishes to aim. It's all right there in your computer!

For anyone considering pc satellite tv, or similar internet television options, I have several suggestions;

1.Subscribe to a high-speed internet service. This will greatly help the buffering of the downloaded channels so your viewing is truly high quality.

2.Make sure your computer has enough RAM (at least 1 gigabyte) for some of the large file sizes.

3.Always check out the company that you're considering using to help access pc satellite tv.

Now, go and enjoy your new internet television!