Free video-on-demand box offered

There are several different companies attempting to bring video-on-demand (VOD) services to a larger number of American households, harnessing the power of the World Wide Web to bring it to TV screens everywhere. The Roku set-top box, for example, costs 99 dollars, and allows you to download movies and TV shows through Amazon.com, while electronics manufacturer LG has announced a flat-panel monitor combined with a Blu-Ray player that streams programming from Netflix's Internet site, so long as you're a subscriber to the company's mail-order movie rental service.

A new player has entered the market, however, and has its own approach to VOD -- one that seems to set it apart. ZillionTV, which has backers in major entertainment companies like Disney, Warner Brothers and Fox, as well as 40 other content providers, announced this week that they intend to release their own set-top box this winter, one that -- with a high-speed Internet connection -- will also bring home viewers their choice of programs, from hit TV series to feature films, at the touch of a button.

The difference, however, is the cost of ZillionTV's hardware. The price for consumers? Nothing. And if you elect to have commercials air during the programming, the shows will also be free. (Okay, so there will be a one-time activation fee of 100 dollars, but once it's on, it's on, at least according to the information provided at the company's Web site.)

The price points of the box and programming, as well as putting the control over the amount of advertising -- indeed, even the types of ads seen -- in the hands of the consumer is what sets the ZillionTV box apart from its competitors. It's also what the start-up likely hopes will be the difference that puts them at the top of a business that has seen lots of interesting ideas fall by the wayside, perhaps because most of the ideas have either failed to reach a large enough sector of the marketplace, or didn't find support among content providers.

I admit that I was sufficiently intrigued with the ZillionTV concept to put myself in line to receive one of their boxes, so once I know the ifs, whys and hows of it, so will you.