According to a survey on television in Economist magazine, despite the proliferation of channels, and the apparent fragmentation of network audiences, people are using all these channels mainly to watch what they were watching before, rather than to satisfy their niche interests. For all the wealth of choice, most viewers watch relatively few channels: on average about 15. Moreover, although the number of channels has surged and will continue to do so with digital TV, the top ten cable channels have remained remarkably constant over the past ten years. Together, the big broadcast networks (NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, the WB and UPN) and the top 10 cable channels grab about 90 percent of the audience, a figure that has remained steady for several years. Clearly, near infinite choice has not created near-infinite fragmentation, and a shake-out of weaker thematic channels is seen as inevitable.

While personalized menus will help viewers to cope with the hail of programming, says The Economist, television will remain primarily a vehicle for mass entertainment. For a download of the entire survey, log onto www.economist.com.