It won't until bandwidth goes up another hundredfold at least. That will require cable modems, digital satellites, digital TV bands or an entirely new generation of broadband phone lines. Wide access to those technologies is two years away. For now the grazer-oriented TV establishment can ignore the Web entirely. But even cows like to play a bit with their food.
Remote controls are popular.
When they arrive at last, high-speed Web terminals will surely absorb the entire domain of broadcasting. Countless Web ventures have failed because they didn't grasp the fundamental differences that separate hunter, browser and grazer. But when a cheetah sets out to seize on-line information about your product, you certainly want him to find it. Newspaper moguls were surprised to learn that few people would buy their print editions over phone lines, and many are now convinced that the Web will never challenge paper media. But classified ads and movie listings are already moving on-line, and news reports will follow as line capacities expand.