Industry tunes in to the coming of video-on-demand. (cable television industry)

A recent what's-hot-what's-not" list in the Los Angeles Times relegated videocassettes to the latter category in favor of what the newspaper called "Dial-a-movie." The item was one of a series of media reports that seem to foster the perception that the local video store is in imminent danger of being replaced by new video-on-demand (VOD) services that will enable consumers to dial up movies as easily as they call out for pizza. The only difference is that the movie would arrive via telephone fines, pay-cable TV or perhaps direct-broadcast satellite.

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