TV is approaching its "iPod moment," according to Google's Vint Cerf (pictured), in the sense that "You're still going to need live television for certain things - like news, sporting events and emergencies - but increasingly it is going to be almost like the iPod, where you download content to look at later."

Speaking yesterday at a conference in the UK, Cerf said we'd soon all be watching the majority of our television through the Internet, just as is already happening in Japan:

"In Japan you can already download an hour's worth of video in 16 seconds. And we're starting to see ways of mixing information together ... imagine if you could pause a TV programme and use your mouse to click on different items on the screen and find out more about them."

Discounting the fear-mongers who claim that video on the web could eventually bring down the Internet – and, as one of its founding fathers, you would expect cerf to know – Cerf reassured his audience that "We're far from exhausting the capacity" of the Internet in bandwidth terms.

These and other related iTV issues will form the basis of the technical program at Internet TV Conference & Expo 2007, being held November 12-13 in San Francisco and produced by SYS-CON Events.

Topics to be explored include the future of web video, "Prime Time on the Net," new business models for the new iTV economy, the importance of content syndication to multiple devices, and the monetization of Internet TV.

Proposals for sessions are still being accepted for this event, and can be submitted here. The Call for Papers closes September 10, 2007.