In terms of cable modem growth, there are similar but less dramatic user projections. Pioneer Consulting estimates that the present number of 790 thousand cable modems users in the United States will grow to an estimated 1.93 million by the year 2000 (Cable Modem University, 1999). This expansive growth in both modem systems holds the potential for many new instructional delivery mediums similar to the past explosive growth of the standard VHS videocassette media.

It was not long ago that the introduction of video media into the different instructional domains was viewed as a revolutionary improvement over film. The use of inexpensive analog videotape that could be easily manipulated, stored, duplicated, and replaced held wide appeal then, and continues to hold the same appeal today. Cost savings were also an obvious benefit. VHS formatted videotapes are now the established instructional medium standard for many instructional purposes.

This is especially true in those discrete instructional situations involving instructional delivery to a local target audience via a stand-alone videotape player or across a local network from a centralized player. The growing numbers of Internet phone and cable modems offer a new form of video medium delivery that is starting to emerge from recent technological innovations. This new medium is called streaming video.