 Internet is another new phenomenon on the continuum from smoke signals and drum beating through writing and drawing on cave walls and rocks to newspapers, books, the telegraph, movies, magazines, telephone, radio, television, and computers. The Internet is simply another disruptive technology or capability. It will continue its disruption for the foreseeable future. From a broad- caster perspective, radio disrupted publishing and movie audiences. And television disrupted radio audiences worse than it did movie patronage. Television news had a different impact on newspaper- delivered news than it did on radio news, but it affected both. In the mid-1970s, two disrupters came along. One was the videocassette recorder (VCR) and the other was Home Box Office (HBO). VCRs changed network television viewing habits. All of a sudden, the major networks viewing audiences began declining and aren't likely to reverse trend anytime soon. HBO put movies on a satellite trans- mission facility and paid for receivers to be installed at cable system head ends in return for a share of the cable operators' revenue, from an extra charge, or increase in basic charges for service. Once the physical infrastructure was in place, super stations-Turner, WGN, and PRACTICAL IP AND TELECOM FOR BROADCAST ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS others-found it easy to uplink the program material broadcast over their local terrestrial transmission facility. All of a sudden, the local cable operator represented more viewing choices for the television audience, further fracturing the major networks audiences. The Internet is a threat to the broadcaster's business. It's another choice for the listener or viewer. In office buildings where satellite reception is impossible, and radio and television reception is poor and borders on un-usable, the Internet provides a way to get music, news, and information to people while they work. A perfectly usable weather radar picture can be viewed with plenty of space on the screen for commercials. Handheld, battery-powered d