• U.S. News, Monday, February 13, 2006 10:49 AM

U.S. News & World Report, which frequently tends to be a little late to pop-culture and trend stories, this week carries a piece about the rush to video-on-demand. "Touted as the next big thing for so long that its arrival has become an industry joke, video-on-demand, which covers everything from movies that can be ordered on cable TV to downloads of 'Desperate Housewives' on a video iPod, may finally be closing in on its economic promise," says the magazine's Betsy Streisand. Industry analyst Harold Vogel, cited in the story, says, "Things are finally falling into place" for an on-demand world. MTV is once again noted as an industry leader, blazing trails for other TV networks seeking ways to extend both their brand and their content. Also mentioned is "Gold Rush!"--the new original series created by producer Mark Burnett especially for AOL.com. "America's big media companies" will be watching that experiment closely, reports Streisand, "searching for secrets to programming and advertising that may help them cash in on the rapidly growing appetite for video-on-demand."

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