TVNations is a tiny desktop directory which makes it easy to watch any of hundreds of streaming TV channels from across the world.

The program organises its channels in two ways. In the left-hand pane you'll find "Categories", like "Children and Cartoons", "Movies", "Music" and "News": choosing any of these will reveal a selection of matching channels. But if you'd prefer to simply browse the channels for a particular location, then just click that country in the right-hand pane for a list of whatever might be available.

A quick initial exploration by us revealed that not everything here is quite as it seems. When we browsed the "UK" offerings, for instance, we found the list of channels included items like "BBC Newsnight", which isn't a specific channel at all - it's a nightly news programme. And while selecting it did play an edition, this was a few years old, bizarrely.

There are plenty of legitimate channels which do work, fortunately, but you have to be realistic about what they're going to show. Select a Movies channel, for instance, and you're far more likely to see some ancient, obscure black and white western B-movie than anything recent or famous.

And the interface is basic, too. You can pause and resume playback, adjust or mute the volume, play full screen or within the program window, but that's about it.

Still, TVNations is small and portable, so it won't clutter your PC. And it does include a lot of TV links, so if you're interested in exploring what the web has to offer here then the program could keep you entertained for quite a few hours.