What is it that everyone is excited about with WiTV? The service is not yet available, even as a private beta so they surely have a way to go to catch up with Joost and the others they are fighting, including the other system out of Italy, Babelgum.

It is too early to compare the service with its competitors. This is not even a pre-announcement, it is an intentional leak, but for me a lot of the excitement hinges on the screenshots that we have been shown. These crucially show a range of Disney films - does CrossCast System from Lecco near Lake Como have an extraordinary deal with Disney or are these screenshots ripped directly from WebTVWire just mock ups?

Access to Disney’s content vault must surely rank as the no. 1 goal of all IPTV distributors. Those of us with children will know how a single one of Disney’s products can be viewed repeatedly, unlike almost any other publisher’s product. With the possible exception of Dreamworks with the Shrek, Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run franchises, there is nothing else out there that could remotely fill a rainy day like a Disney catalogue can. Any IPTV network that offers me this is going to get taken very seriously.

There also seems to have been some thought given to user interaction, which although not particularly relevant within the Disney context, could be a very important feature for more grown up broadcasted content. At a time when phone-in shows are attacked for malpractice and termed a rip-off, user interaction may move online more quickly.

The advertising capability of WiTV is also shown on WebTVWire although the commentary is more speculative. It is noticeable that the ads show during the main play-time as a banner on the bottom. Nothing wrong with that of course, as long as the content owner is on board - consider though the Ford branding in recent James Bond films for example. Can BMW sponsor the WiTV copy of such films when they are shown? It won’t work if they can…

There are also one or two neat little add-ons like chapter management within the promised content experience, but how these roll out in practice will be interesting to see. Personally, I will reserve judgment until I hear confirmation of otherwise from Disney and until I have tried the service myself. There is no suggestion if / when either of these may happen in anything I have read and as things are changing so quickly in this space I might not start holding my breath quite just yet. We shall see…