Content and service providers looking to leverage additional sales beyond broadband connections into the networked home have to, among other things, partner more closely with digital integrators.

"By not seeking more active relationships with us, they are missing out on some big opportunities," says Ross Harris, senior sales manager for Cinestore Home Media, an Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based digital integrator and developer of the Manhattan home media and control server.

Harris is now working on a deal to sell his products and services into a new 5,000-home development. "Integrators are able to act as the trusted adviser in helping the customer choose the services and product while providing the long-term caring that keeps a customer satisfied."

As consumers connect to broadband and add wired and wireless networks to their homes, they will begin demanding richer and deeper services from their integrators and service providers, analysts say.

Research firm Parks Associates, which recently held its Fall Focus: On Demand Digital Entertainment conference in San Diego, estimates that 28 million U.S. households have broadband Internet connections and about 17 million households have in-home data networking solutions. Parks Associates expects both numbers to almost double in the next three years.

About 22 million homes have digital cable and direct broadcast satellite services, and half of them order pay-per-view services at least once a month. By 2008, that number should hit 60 million. By then, about 16 million people are expected to be paying to download or stream movies from the Internet, according to Parks Associates analysts.

The problem is content providers have yet to settle digital rights management issues surrounding the use and distribution of digital movies throughout the home. On top of that, service providers such as cable and satellite operators have not made strong enough efforts to partner with the army of integrators and installers building the foundations of the networked home, an area where consumer interest in on-demand entertainment and other services is strong.

"If people have the resources, you show it to them," says Mike Adams, president of Brentwood Communications, a Los Angeles digital integrator. "And they often buy it."

That interest would be even stronger, integrators say, if service and content providers created stronger marketing and end-user educational programs.

"They're not always asking for such services, but we know they want them," says Harris, adding that customers become willing buyers once they are shown the benefits.

A number of factors, however, inhibit on-demand digital entertainment adoption, says Tricia Parks, Parks Associates president. For example, the industry has to agree on how to handle digital rights management and set attractive pricing for their services and content.

"Consumers play no part [in setting industry policy] except that if they find [digital rights management] too expensive or restrictive, they will steal content," she says.

Complexity is another issue. Consumers want on-demand entertainment to be as simple as plugging in and turning on a TV. "Consumers say electricity is easy because the complexity has moved to the utility," she says. "The digital media industry has to do the same."

Yet that very complexity is creating opportunities for service providers and integrators, Parks says. While a small group of consumers will spend whatever time is needed to get it right, the majority will pay for the services of a trusted integrator. "This is a good time for service providers to make a dent," she says.