With broadband access up to an estimated 42.3 million from 25.3 million just a few years ago, and DVR usage steadily on the rise, network and cable television companies know the on-demand age is
looming. Now, they are all taking baby steps into what is an incredibly frightening new world for them. Even so, industry executives and analysts speaking to
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette say
media companies in the future will be supporting themselves the same way they always have: through advertising. Some say on-demand programming is just a passing fad, an interim business model until
on-demand hits critical mass. They see the opportunity for hyper-targeted advertising and more product placement. Others say advertisers had better come up with a way to innovate, or network and cable
television are doomed. The transition to the future is likely to be rocky, not unlike the transition the music industry has been faced with for a few years now. As one analyst puts it, "No old media
form ever disappears. They get reinvented into a new purpose."
Read the whole story at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette »
