THE FANTASTICAL FUTURE OF TV WHAT LOOMS AHEAD IN THE 500,000-CHANNEL UNIVERSE.

Byline: David Bloom Staff Writer

What we've called television for the past 50 years is undergoing radical changes at every turn.

``Television as we know it will be gone in 15 years,'' says Jim Chabin, president of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Remember the talk a few years back of a 500-channel universe? Though we're not quite there yet, we're already talking 500,000 channels. And the speed at which technology is moving is likely to make that happen sooner than later.

Not only is technology altering the types of programming we'll be seeing but the way we watch television, too. Once called the boob tube, TV is becoming increasingly interactive and computerlike.

Here are a few signs the future is almost here:

--In the past year, AT&T bought two of the world's largest cable companies, Microsoft bought a chunk of AT&T, and this month America Online made a deal to merge with Time Warner with its cable and broadcast networks, No. 2 cable system and music, movie and TV studios. And you can count on more major corporate marriages like these, as other big players try to position themselves for a new entertainment world order. This competition is likely to spur changes as these new companies try to roll out their technologies first.

--A variety of new devices are smearing boundaries between TV, the Internet and other media, including sophisticated new digital cable set- top boxes, WebTV Plus, the Replay and TIVO personal video recorders, computer peripherals such as ATI's All-in-Wonder 128 graphics card and videogame consoles like the forthcoming PlayStation 2.

--For the first time this fall, viewers could more actively take part in some of the shows they love, as with enhanced versions of ``Jeopardy'' and ``Wheel of Fortune,'' thanks to interactive technology developed by a Los Angeles company called Mixed Signals. Again, owners of WebTV Plus machines and other set-top boxes can use their remote to play along, as information transmitted in the closed-caption part of the TV signal is used to key action on the screen.

--ABC TV regularly touted on air the interactive aspects of its ``Monday Night Football'' telecasts. Tonight's broadcast of the Super Bowl on ABC will feature the same enhanced TV offerings of the network's Monday Night Football, including a pick-the-play game synchronized to the second with the broadcast. The ABC, NFL and ESPN Web sites will also include such features as a ``momentum meter'' that tracks emotional shifts in the game's progress.

Both before and after the game, the sites will feature chats with sports figures, scouting guides, and analysis and statistics, among other information.

--MTV game show ``WebRIOT'' also requires its viewers to log on to the MTV.com Web site with their computer while watching the show if they want to play along. But 44,000 people a day are doing so.

--The Dish Network's new Dish Player takes the idea further, combining a satellite TV receiver, personal video recording services and WebTV Plus. TIVO and Philips are creating a similar device for the leading satellite service, DirecTV.

--In the computer world, peripheral companies are doing their own boundary pushing. ATI's All-In-Wonder 128 graphics card, for instance, gives a computer such capabilities as HDTV tuning, replay-like video recording, video editing and the ability to play DVDs and audio CDs, even karaoke titles in the Video CD format.

And what's driving all this? Money, of course. There's a ton of it to be made, making it easy to buy what you see on the screen.

RespondTV made a splash last year with an experiment selling pizza to Bay Area WebTV Plus users watching a ``Star Trek'' marathon. The WebTV Plus, a $199 box sold by Sony and Philips based around a Microsoft service, provides a simple Internet connection through the television.

RespondTV's behind-the-scenes software let WebTV viewers use the box's remote control and wireless keyboard to order a pizza without even leaving their couch to get the cordless phone.

``About 250 people clicked on the ad, and 150 people bought a pizza, out of maybe 1,000 who could actually see the ad,'' said RespondTV President Richard Fisher. Advertisers love numbers like those, and will pay big to get similar results, said Josh Bernoff, Forrester Research principal analyst, who predicts that by 2004, there will be 24 million U.S. households able to interact with their TVs.

And in the future, such impulse buys will be even easier, because the digital cable set-top boxes now being put in homes around America will already know the buyer's address and billing information, Fisher said. Buying will be as easy as changing channels.

``Direct marketing is a $160 billion industry that TV doesn't participate in any appreciable way,'' Fisher said. Soon it will.

Even devices long considered as little brothers to the TV set, videogame consoles, are getting smarter and more powerful. Sony's PlayStation 2 comes to the United States this fall with a DVD player, leading-edge computer chips and high-speed peripheral connections that can turn it into a home entertainment and Internet center.

Sony has also promised to create a high-speed broadband service in 2001 so PlayStation 2 owners can attach hard drives and fast modems to their machines and download movies and music.

You can already watch, rent, even buy digital movies on the Internet, though much needs to be done to make it as easy as turning on a TV.

``While it is possible to watch video on the PC, it's uncomfortable,'' Bernoff said. ``Computers are not typically set up right to make that easy. So most of what you see right now with video on PCs is a dress rehearsal.''

Sightsound.com was the first to offer a downloadable, feature-length movie for sale or rent, the independent sci-fi flick ``Pi.''

``We only had it up for 3 1/2 weeks,'' said company co-founder Scott Sander. ``And about half the sales were to strategic sales people at the studios. It wasn't a business yet, it was an expedition, but we learned a lot in the process.''

Lots of other companies are joining Sightsound online, some buying movies and other programs, and others creating original shows, said Mariana Danelovic, senior manager of the digital media business incubator for KPMG Peat Marwick.

``I think within the next couple of years there's going to be more and more programming on the Web that's going to be TV-like,'' Danelovic said. ``I don't believe that mass-broadcast events are the way to use the Internet effectively. What we've developed are the niche media networks.''

Entertaindom.com, a Warner Bros. entertainment site in Burbank, scored a notable success with its much-downloaded animated short, ``The Peeper,'' created by hot comedian Adam Sandler. Other big-name performers are also coming to the Web, such as comedian Robin Williams and musical entrepreneur Sean ``Puffy'' Combs, which will only increase viewer interest in Web-based programming.

``I think the Internet is going to be the new place for entertainment,'' said Mediatrip.com president Robert Faust. Mediatrip had its own Net hit this fall with ``George Lucas in Love,'' a short spoof that Faust said drew 150,000 viewings in three weeks.

``Those are big numbers for a company that's not doing much marketing right now,'' said Faust. For comparison, a decently rated cable show will have around 1.5 million households watching at any given moment.

If all this sounds dizzying, listen to Robert Hopkins, senior vice president and general manager of Sony's High-Definition Data Center and one of the authors of the U.S. HDTV technical specifications. ``If you can't do it now, just wait a couple of years. We'll be delivering video one way or another into the home. I believe things like the home theater are going to be even more important than they are now.''

MUST-SEE WEB SITES

Here's a quick list of places to go to look for video content on the Internet:

Yack.com (www.yack.com): It styles itself as a TV Guide for the Internet, with listings of live events you can watch and expanded coverage of other programming. A good place to get a sense of what 500 million channels really means.

Sightsound.com (www.sightsound.com): They hold the patents on several key parts of the business of downloading music and movies from the Net. And they hope to become the company helping studios sell their stuff online. They already have dozens of mostly B movies and independent works available. With their patents in their back pocket, they've scaled up big time and plan to be a big purveyor of studio product in the near future.

Atom Films (www.atomfilms.com): Mika Salmi has been collecting tons of short films, including ``Plug,'' the much-heralded 11-minute short by USC grad Meher Gourjian, and ``The Qui-Gon Show,'' a parody of our favorite interstellar blockbuster from a galaxy far, far away. One of the big stars of the new broadcasting paradigm.

WireBreak.com (www.wirebreak.com): ``Forget coffee, take a wire break,'' goes the pitch from this Venice-based company trying to attract the interest of college kids and corporate drones with access to high- speed business or university connections. They're producing four shows so far in bite-size chunks designed to appeal to those with fast connections and short breaktimes.

MediaTrip.com (www.mediatrip.com): The Hollywood-based company has acquired Internet sites to some distinctive shows, such as the ``Shakespeare in Love'' spoof ``George Lucas in Love,'' and its own original content, such as the way politically incorrect ``Lil' Pimp'' animated series, a weekly stand-up comedy series at Largo in Hollywood, plus a weekly music show.

Digital Entertainment Network (www.den.net): An ambitious Santa Monica-based company targeting very narrow slices of the teen market, with 30 shows and related chat rooms, games, bulletin boards and more for everything from fraternity slobs to Christian teens to East L.A. youths to skatepunks. Short video segments are optimized to play adequately even on slow connections.

Film (www.ifilm.com): Like Atom, iFilm has been busily locking up rights to a lot of shorts and other films by others. They have a sleek site and a solid array of offerings.

Yahoo Broadcast Services (www.yahoo.com): Yahoo bought Broadcast.com for five really big ones (that would be billions of dollars), tucked it into a corner and have been trying to figure out how to best show off the hundreds of thousands of hours of content Broadcast.com has accumulated. A lot of the archival stuff is pretty great and now much more accessible. The vast archives include a ton of news and other non-fiction material, plus lots of oddball stuff.

Eruptor.com (www.eruptor.com): Not a lot of stuff, but some pretty gorgeous and interesting initial original programming. They have marketing savvy and ambition, with their own set of ``Eruptor girls'' and small-time stars such as Olivia D'Abo in their programs.

The Threshold (www.thethreshold.com): The same fellows who brought you ``Mortal Kombat'' movies, games, TV shows and everything else are now going online with an array of programs pitched solely for young males. If you're about 24 and dripping with testosterone, this is digital heaven: Duke Nukem, Conan the Barbarian and Rena Mero (formerly WWF wrestler Sable) among much else.

Pseudo.com (www.pseudo.com): A New York-based Web entertainment site with a wide array of its own programming, including such things as a hip-hop show.

Soundbreak.com (www.soundbreak.com): A music site that has live DJs (complete with streaming video of them at work) playing a wide array of music.

Spike Radio (www.spikeradio.com): A quirky Net radio site with internationalist techno tendencies, this Hollywood-based operation is doing some video now, with plans to do a much wider base of lifestyle and music in the next couple of years.

Launch Media (www.launch.com): Santa Monica-based Launch has cut deals with three of the Big Five record labels to show their music videos on its site. Launch, which first made a name for itself with a CD-ROM-based ``magazine'' that focuses on music, film and gaming, now is expanding its Web presence substantially, not only with music videos but its own Web radio service, called Launchcast.

Global Music Network (www.gmn.com): It specializes in classical, jazz and opera music, with 60 hours of video and 200 hours of audio available for listening. They recently added opera king Placido Domingo to their board of directors. He also will produce music of his own and of other artists for the site.

BreakTV (www.breaktv.com?): This Sherman Oaks-based company mostly brings traditional TV shows to the Internet, without much modification. The company is also doing some original content, and running contests, but otherwise adding little to the TV experience.

- David Bloom

CAPTION(S):

7 photos, box

Photo: (1 -- color) You ain't seen nothing yet; TV's changing faster than a channel surfer.

Jon Gerung/Staff Artist

(2) Invest

(3) Shop

(4) Eat

(5) Play

(6) Watch

(7) no caption (woman holding a gun)

Box: Must-see Web sites (see text)