Chapter List

Digital technologies are revolutionizing virtually all aspects of mass media. Digital video compression, interactivity, and new business opportunities are fueling an explosion in the number of mass media and the programming they provide.

The changes are most evident in multichannel video distribution services. As the following chapter indicates, cable television continues to reinvent itself, incorporating digital technology to increase channel capacity and provide new services. Chapter 6 then explains how direct broadcast satellite (DBS) services have emerged as the most aggressive competitors to cable television.

The factor shared by all of multichannel distribution services is programming. Most of these services depend, in large part, upon revenues from the pay television services explored in Chapter 4, including premium cable channels and various types of pay-per-view television, including numerous forms of video on demand. Not all technologies have been as successful as pay-TV. As discussed in Chapter 5, interactive television efforts that have been discussed as the future of television for more than 20 years continue to disappoint inventors and investors.

Chapter 7 explores how digital technology is forcing the biggest change ever in broadcast television as the television industry copes...