Most WebTV products today consist of a small box that connects to your telephone line and television. It makes a connection to the Internet via your telephone service and then converts the downloaded Web pages to a format that can be displayed on your TV. These products also come with a remote control device so that you can navigate through the Web.

Web TV is an evolving term. Initially, the term broadly referred to using a TV as a monitor to surf the web as part of a computer system. Today the term is interchangeable with Internet television. In addition to having access to the web for information, Internet television now includes access to online entertainment content, movies, videos, both streaming live and on-demand, and social networking. In order for the television to evolve from “Web TV” to a full blown internet entertainment centre, bandwidth had to increase to accommodate the ever increasing amount of data being downloaded. In addition, the networks, on-demand video sites and premium channels had to make enough content available that the consumer turn to the Internet for their content.