Recorded audio and motion picture media has been an aspect of society since the days of Thomas Edison. At the start of the 20th century there was wide distribution of recorded audio media (cylinders and records) and motion picture media (nickelodeons and movies), but both technologies were still in their infancy. In the late 1920s motion pictures were combined with audio on a mass-market basis, followed by color motion pictures with audio. Radio broadcasting gradually evolved into a largely advertising-supported form of broadcast mass-market audio media. When a television (TV) broadcast standard was established in the mid-1940s, television joined radio as a form of broadcast mass-market media bringing previously recorded or live motion pictures into the home.
By the middle of the 20th century, a large percentage of USor tape from the publisher.
The advent of the consumer VCR led to even more consumer convenience, since now a VCR could be set to record a TV show which could be watched at a later time, and it also led to the creation of the video rental business, where movies as well as TV programming could be accessed on an “on demand” basis. The rapid development of mass-market home media devices since the mid-1980s has led to an unprecedented level of choice and convenience for the consumer, and also has led to a rapid expansion of the media publishing market.
Today, consumers are faced with a plethora of media choices as well as a plethora of media devices, many of which are tied to particular forms of media or