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The Journey From Social Networking to Visual Networking

The growing popularity of online video has become the tipping point for advanced CE (consumer electronics) in the home. Consumer interest and demand for this content -- from user-generated videos of stealthy cats to streams of classic 1980s shows like "Airwolf" -- have prompted service providers and CE manufacturers to expand outward on the possibilities once video is tied and intertwined with other signals coming into the home.

Already almost 30 million adults in the U.S. are watching TV shows on the Internet , using services like Hulu, Joost, and Veoh Networks, as well as the portals from the major broadcast networks.

This growing demand for online video is not moving people to pull the plug on their traditional household services -- less than 1 percent of the broadband households watching or downloading TV shows from the Internet do not pay for entertainment services. So the vast majority of households have cable, satellite, fiber, or telco video signals coming into the home -- and the CE delivering these signals is getting more sophisticated.

From the article, "The Journey From Social Networking to Visual Networking" by Jayant Dasari

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