Broadband's Fate Is Tied to Services.

I-Way Patrol book critic Gary Arlen hides his business books inside a copy of People magazine while sunning on the sand.

The Internet Challenge to Television, by Bruce Owen, isn't exactly end-of-summer beach reading -- books by economists rarely fit that role.

But it's an accessible back-to-school-time primer for those who are still trying to grapple with the role of traditional media in the Internet era. Amid the daily deal-making cacophony, it's useful to get a long view of where the bandwidth bonanza fits into the bigger telecommunications/media picture.

Sadly, Owen often leans toward a Socratic style, raising the possibility that, admittedly, it still might be too soon to answer.

For example, in a chapter about video on the Web, Owen …