Is there a set-top market, one in which a high degree of interactivity is allowed to take place, and which will change the way we watch television?

For most people, whether they have cable or satellite TV installed, the set-top box is that thing that sits on top of the television, and tells you what channel you're watching. Some of them look pretty ugly, and some, especially the ones for the latest satellite systems, are sleek and high-tech. Yet, set-top box is a term that has been used to describe much more sophisticated devices, and the idea of a set-top box market leads to some confusing assumptions being made about how we may be watching television in the future. The following table is one that I have framed on a wall at home, and to which I point every time my wife tries to wrest control of our evening away from the remote.

Hours Per Person Per Year Using Consumer Media (Source: Veronis, Suhler & Associates)

It's no wonder that set-top boxes want to be more than dumb channel tuners. There's about as much television as we want, or care to handle. Therefore, in a somewhat sneaky manner, the fundamental reason why set-top boxes have become an information appliance category, even though I don't believe there is such a thing as an information appliance market in the consumer market segment, is the level of intelligence to be found in the components of set-top boxes designed to handle digital television, and HDTV signals. In effect, as the broadcasters of the world transition from analog to digital transmission systems, the receivers in people's homes will have enough processing power to perform a myriad of computing activities, and there's no better idea than to keep television viewers in front of the TV, even if they are going online, or playing a game.