The Wonderful World of Color

And

Competition in the Market for the Delivery of Video Programming

Fifty years ago RCA began production of the first color television. The U.S. Census Bureau celebrates that event with the hightlights on the "Wonderful World of Color" at it web site. Below are notes from the site.

98.2% of households have televisions.
248 Million televisions in households in 2001.
2.4 televisions per home.
1,669 is the average number of hours adults will watched television in 2004.
$255.18 is projected annual spending per person, on cable and satellite TV in 2004.

Early this year, the FCC relased it's tenth annual report to congress on competition in the video delivery market. The full report is at www.fcc.gov/mb/; "FCC Releases Tenth Annual Report on Competition in Video Markets". Below are highlights from the report...

106 Million households have televisions
70 Million are served by cable
20 Million are served by Direct Broadcast Satellite - DBS
1.4 Million are served by Broadband Service Providers
A wide category which includes Open Video Systems - OVS service providers
The Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC's) moved in and out of video over the past 10 years, and mostly return to reselling DBS.
Qwest continues to provide VDSL delivered video in two exchanges.
Content prices have increased at double digit rates.
Cable industry revenues per subscriber raised 10% to $780.75. Year 2002 saw 14.6% increases.
Significant amounts of download and/or streaming video is now available on-line. Movielink is highlighted in the report.

Summary on May 13, 2004