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Video on demand (VOD) systems allow users to select and watch video and clip content over a network as part of an interactive television system. VOD systems either "stream" content, allowing viewing in real time, or "download" it in which the praogram is brought in its entirety to a set-top box before viewing starts. The latter is more appropriately termed "store and forward". The majority of cable and telco based VOD systems use the streaming approach, whereby a user buys or selects a movie or television program and it begins to play on the television set almost instantaneously.
Nowadays, the term often encompasses a broader spectrum of delivery devices, referring not only to set-top-boxes but also computers, mobile phones and indeed any system that can receive on-demand audio-visual content over a network. Many television networks offer free video content (often what is shown on the station itself) for free, (such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation[1],) or for a small fee. (Whether or not this is true video on demand is debatable
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