I write bearing bad news for the world's television addicts: TV as we know it is breathing its last. It's contracted a slow-moving disease called "the Internet," the symptoms of which involve networks bleeding out viewers followed by advertisers until, eventually, the most popular entertainment medium on Earth lies in near ruin.

Indeed, the Internet will ultimately wholly transform television into something that viewers a decade ago would scarcely have been able to imagine. Those of us living in the twenty-first century, on the other hand, are beginning to get a pretty good idea of how this new format is going to take shape.

In fact, Internet TV has already taken its first, formative steps, perhaps most prominently in the form of Joost (www.joost.com). Sporting some 150 channels of content provided by a wide range of existing traditional broadcasters -- from entertainment industry heavyweights including CBS and Viacom to smaller Canadian players like CHUM and JumpTV -- Joost seems set to become the first Web TV network giant on the planet.

The appeal of Joost -- and all Internet TV -- is simple: You can watch what you want to watch whenever you want to watch it. No more need to tune in at 8:00 pm on Thursday or make sure your PVR is set to record in order to catch the latest episode of your favourite show. Just sit down at your convenience, confident in the knowledge that your program is just a click or two away.

Of course, you'll have to endure plenty of advertising -- nothing, as my dad used to say, is free in this world. But most of us have by now grown accustomed to our culture's nearly constant stream of commercials broadcast everywhere from movie theatres to cell phones, so Internet ads ought not be too much of a burden. Besides, Joost includes only three minutes of commercials per hour of video. Compare that to the 15 to 20 minutes seen in most hour-long broadcast television shows and it seems like an outright bargain.

Of course, there will be holdouts that initially reject Internet TV. In imagining Joost, some people will likely think of YouTube and its tiny, grainy, boxed videos before deciding that they want nothing to do with it. However, aside from the fact that you'll be restricted to viewing shows on the monitor connected to your PC (which, it's worth mentioning, could be your television -- see footnote), Joost feels surprisingly similar to traditional TV. Content is full screen, high resolution, and comes with TiVo-like features that allow viewers to obtain information about individual shows and browse other available content without stopping the program they're watching. It also adds features you simply can't get via traditional television, like the ability to chat with friends and access interactive bonus material similar to what you might find on a DVD.

Of course Joost isn't the only Web-based TV network out there; it just happens to be the biggest and best-funded at the moment. Expect similarly structured networks to pop up in the months and years to come, like the imminent Dublin-based Babelgum (www.babelgum.com), which is currently in the process of securing content and advertisers.

And, as most frequent Internet users know, the number of independent Internet TV networks out there is legion. Take Canadian network Eye Rock Digital (www.eyerockdigital.com). With its small video boxes and game-like user interface, this indie Web TV network delivers a variety of quirky, guy-oriented channels, including clips from old horror, western, and kung fu movies, diary-esque videos hosted by beautiful models, and Gene Simmons' notorious No Good TV (imagine a video version of Maxim, only dirtier).

Obviously, Eye Rock appeals to a very niche audience, but such is the case with most smaller Internet TV networks. ManiaTV (www.maniatv.com), for example, leans strongly toward the high school/college crowd, with short films, live talk shows (one hosted by Tom Green, another by Dave Navarro), sports programming, and viral videos.

And, thanks to youth-oriented networks like ManiaTV, there's no denying that those born in this decade will grow up watching Web-based TV as their primary TV source.

But two big questions still loom. First, how quickly (and to what extent) will television as we currently know it transition from a traditional to an Internet format? The answer rests with advertisers, who will base their commercial buying decisions on how we, their target viewers, decide we want to watch television. The more they think we're spending most of our time in front of a PC as opposed television, the more rapidly will their budgets shift from one format to the other.

The other important question -- especially for those who fancy themselves connoisseurs of television programming -- is how television content might change during the transition.

The success of miniseries on video sharing sites such as YouTube and viral webisodes used to promote traditional television series like Lost and Eureka suggests that the Internet is best suited to deliver programming that is briefer than it is on traditional television.

But we live in a time when consumers are the ones who dictate to the corporate world what we want, and it seems unlikely that all people will be satisfied watching nothing but short and relatively insubstantial video clips. Groups of friends and families interested in spending a night together in front of a screen will almost certainly continue to crave longer-format programming that they can sink their teeth into.

So while you can expect short-form video storytelling to increase, there's no reason to fear losing longer format content.

And, contrary to the dramatic opening of this article, don't expect traditional television to perish completely. People without PCs or high speed Internet will rely on old-fashioned cable and free-to-air television for years to come, and as long as there are viewers for these traditional broadcasts, advertisers will stick around to fund programming. Nevertheless, nothing short of a global disaster will keep Internet TV from eventually becoming the preferred, top-tier service with the best content and features. It's inevitable. As individuals, the only thing we have to decide is when we're going to make the switch.

Footnote: Turn your TV into a PC monitor

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One of the biggest obstacles Internet TV has to overcome is getting people to sit down in front of a PC to watch television. The most elegant way around this problem is to make your living room TV double as a computer monitor, but to do that you need to know how to connect your PC to your TV. It's not as hard as you might think. Most modern PCs have a DVI-output, and most new LCD televisions have a DVI-input. Just connect the two with a DVI cable, turn them both on, and you'll be looking at your PC desktop on your living room display. If you have an older PC or television, connecting the two might prove a bit of an adventure, thanks to mismatched jacks and cables. But don't fear; your local electronics retailer should have a healthy supply of converters and adapters. Just make sure you know which video ports your computer and TV have before you go shopping. And keep in mind that the higher resolution of your living room TV, the better the picture will be -- in other words, don't expect to be able to read PC text on your old cathode ray tube (CRT) set.