Library and Technology Services this month doubled the number of channels available on Internet Protocol Television, the University's online television service, and it no longer considers the service to be experimental, officials said.LTS officials stressed that the future of the project depends, for the most part, on student feedback and financial considerations.

Comedy Central, CNN, Fox, MTV, The Food Network, TBS and the Japanese Channel were all added to the IPTV lineup for this semester.

LTS launched IPTV in Spring 2005 as a more flexible way for students to watch television on campus. Director of Networks and Systems John Turner said in February 2005 that the University was considering eliminating traditional cable in lieu of Internet cable.

But because a student poll this semester indicated that students don't want to watch all programs on their computers, Turner said there are no plans to shelve regular cable.

"Enabling all channels on IPTV would be costly," Chief Technology Officer Anna Tomecka wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. She added that hardware, software and programming costs would be in the "multiple hundreds of dollars."

With every two channels added, a new server is purchased, and each station has to receive a licensing fee, Turner said.

The pilot program began last spring with only four channels: ESPN, Fox News, Sci Fi and the Cartoon Network. At that time, Anna Tomecka, the chief technology officer for LTS, said IPTV was more flexible than the traditional coaxial television system, since it allows for live streaming of events and easier changing of the channel lineup according to students' preferences.

The survey this fall asked students to rank their seven favorite TV channels. In the survey's evaluation, higher-ranked choices were given more weight.

Three-hundred-seventy-six students, which indicated that in terms of both total and weighted scores Comedy Central was the most popular channel.

"I graphed it out and Comedy Central was a spike and all the rest of them were a nice even line," said Ann Livermore, the assistant director for student technology services.

Turner emphasized that the level of student interest, though difficult to detect, will determine further expansion of the service.

"We can't really get a handle on what people are watching," Turner said, adding that LTS is considering implementing a system, protective of student privacy, to find out the most and least watched channels.

LTS is also considering the extent to which programming will already be available online because some networks, such as ABC and NBC, stream episodes of their shows for free.

"We are not eager to spend money on something that is offered to students free of charge," Tomecka said.