BOAC,
Maybe a trip to Richer Sounds or somewhere with an intelligent sales person might help better than I can?
I am not aware of any channel that "needs" an internet connection. In my simple mind , I see a programme and either do or do not want to watch it. I'm not persuaded that it will enhance my viewing to have the internet connected.................may be I'm wrong and/or simple and/or daft.
What a "Smart" tv does for me, (and SWMBO, and elder daughter) is to give me access to Internet stuff, and BBC iplayer on my tv. (Plus a bunch of things - BBC news, BBC sport, Netflix, you tube, are set up on the Viera connect screen.)
The pana options are one possible set of options, the other tvs might give you something different.
What the Blu ray thingie does (and only certain models do this) is bring this capability to the old tv. It doesn't do any more than that, but for me the addition of iplayer is helpful. I would also like 4 od, but can't find that.