And everyone wants to know the winners and losers. While viewers will continue to spend less time watching broadcasters and more watching cable and satellite channels, the lines are flattening. Two years ago, Veronis Suhler predicted that viewers in 2002 would spend 748 hours with broadcast TV and 827 with cable and satellite. That's been revised to give broadcasters 846 hours, leaving cable and satellite with 744. But a lot of the increase will come from digital downloading, which will free consumers to buy just the songs they want.
Retailers can thank DVDs.
But only 19 million users will have high-speed access, 12.3 million of them from cable modems. Two years ago Veronis Suhler predicted that the average person would spend 49 hours online in 2002. That figure's now up to 187. This is a shock. People will devote more time to the games than to premium cable channels, newspapers, books, magazines, home videos and movies.