So while Bambuser.com is broadcasting their cellphone TV channel yesterday and today, the Swedish media has been reporting on many new Internet television alternatives.

Under the headline “How You Get 2300 Channels — For Free” “Aftonbladet” writes about several web-based services that carry a variety of TV channels, all free offerings like NASA-TV or C-Span or community channels. All of these seem to be portals that stream video from other sources. In some cases they provide links to video on other websites. Here are Aftonbladet’s choices:

• Channelchooser.com is supposed to have 1000 channels of all kinds. It seems to be a very well-functioning system, which puts a Real Player in the middle of the screen. Unlike the other alternatives it doesn’t seem to have any lag.
• Euchannels.net has 30 Nordic and European channels, with hich quality video. This claims to be a peer to peer service, which is the secret behind the coming Joost service.
• Yourcanal.com has 2000 channels of all kinds. (I had trouble getting any of the channels to actually open. After a long wait a video clip started playing, but instead of the ABC news channel I had asked for the first time something in Spanish started and stopped over and over again, and on my second try I got what seemed to be French channel called Jet, which likewise came in short bits.)
• Peekvid.com has 750 channels of all kinds, with high quality video. Peekvid writes on their page:

  “Peekvid does not contain any content on its site, but is merely an index of available links on the Internet. Peekvid is committed to an industry solution that will provide a mechanism to compensate artists that create the work you enjoy watching. Peekvid would like to be part of the long term solution.”

  Despite the disclaimer they seem to carry not only channels, but episodes of major American TV programs (from “Star Trek” to “Friends” and “Desperate Housewives”). Unfortunately they also seem to take a very long time to start streaming and the video quality of the TV programs leaves something to be desired.

• Wwitv.com has 2300 channels of all kinds. It has listing by country, and under the United States it includes local channels from different states. But only the free channels are actually directly available. Other channels just have links to their websites (which gives a feeling of completeness and following the law). Very impressive.
• American Free TV has 30 free American channels, with what “Aftonbladet” describes as high video quality. (But the first time I tried to access the site, none of the channels would actually start streaming. The second time I got a channel to open, but there was so much lag it was impossible to watch, and the image was massively pixelated.)

Should not all of these channels actually have authorized the Internet relays, “Aftonbladet” points out that under Swedish law it is legal to watch any TV broadcast on the Internet. What is illegal is downloading copyrighted TV or films from file-sharing sites.

I have “up to 24 MB/s” broadband, which usually measures at around 10 MB/s. In almost all of these cases there was severe lag. The absolute best were Channelchooser and Wwitv.

Thursday’s “Dagens Internet” (Daily Internet) choice in the newspaper “Metro” was Publiken.se, which is a site to pay for and legally download shorts and regular films. This is a serious site, and the large files (800 to 900 MB) means good quality.

Unfortunately because the system is based on the Windows Media Player, after you buy and download a film, you can’t copy it to a DVD so you can watch it on a TV set. You have to watch on your computer.

Today’s “Dagens Nyheter” reports on how telephone and ADSL broadband supplier Telia Sonera is now trying to sell broadband TV. This comes as the analog terrestrial TV transmitters are being turned off in Stockholm next month, and Telia is advertising heavily in subway stations, as are several other digital operators. The shut-off only affects over-the-air TV, but satellite and cable operators are using the opportunity to look for more customers, confused at having to upgrade to digital.

Like terrestrial digital, Telia’s broadband TV offers fewer channels than the cable or satellite alternatives, only 26 in the largest package. Rival broadband provider Bredbandsbolaget offers similar packages, but with up to 45 channels provided by cable/satellite operator Viasat. Both companies, however, seem to be going heavily in for movies on demand.

Of course the problem with all of these systems is that they give you television on a computer screen. If you want to actually get the video onto a TV set, you need to have some kind of computer, connected to broadband Internet, with a card of some kind to output the video to a television.

What we need is a box, like a DVD player or satellite receiver, that actually does that, simple and easy to use. This seems to be what the new Apple TV will be all about.