Willie-O

I'm probably just babbling, but the story I got was that web-tv was more popular "over there" because of the difference in 'phone billing. In most of the US, local calls are usually "free" in your monthly subscription, so you can hook up to a local 'phone number and surf all day. In some other places, you pay by the minute for all calls, so it can get very expensive to use a POTS connection - the plain vanilla of ISP connections - for surfing.

There are a few places here that charge by the minute for local calls, and a few other places where you can't get a local number for a decent ISP; but even in those places there are usually "premium" 'phone service plans that get you unlimited local calls, or a merger with another nearby local area, for relatively small cost.

Web-tv isn't really an option for me, because it would mean allowing "that tv thing" (cable) in the house... I don't think it offers much to most US web users that can't be found in other kinds of connections, at lower cost and with even better performance. It could be quite handy if the other options aren't there.

John