The Guardian Unlimited has an interview with Vint Cerf, aka the godfather of the Internet, about the future of television.

While mainstream television networks may have some trouble seeing and adapting to where things are going,¬†the 64-year old Cerf expects television to change rapidly, as it approaches its “ipod moment”.

“85% of all video we watch is pre-recorded, so you can set your system to download it all the time,” said Cerf at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival. “You’re still going to need live television for certain things – like news, sporting events and emergencies – but increasingly it is going to be almost like the iPod, where you download content to look at later.”

Dr Cerf predicts that we will soon be watching the majority of our television through the Internet.

“In Japan you can already download an hour’s worth of video in 16 seconds,” he said. “And we’re starting to see ways of mixing information together … imagine if you could pause a TV program and use your mouse to click on different items on the screen and find out more about them.”