It’s been brewing for a while now.

Tivo revolutionized the way audiences thought about and watched TV. Bittorrent allowed us to download television shows and movies for free. Apple began offering brand name television for download and viewing on iPods for $1.99. This has all been heralding the next big revolution in tech and the internet at large: 2006 will truly be the year of video.

There were two big announcements this week that mark the first two plays for the downloadable video biz in 2006. First, the Wall Street Journal announced that Google will be offering video downloads from major content providers, then Starz announced that they also plan to sell their movies for download to PCs and video players. Couple this with the rumors that Steve Jobs will be announcing a Fox partnership with Apple during his keynote this Tuesday, and you can see that the new war is going to be fought over where consumers will be getting their video fix.

Thanks to Lynetter for the image