We may have less money, but we're no less impatient.

Flying in the face of the struggling economy, movies-by-mail service Netflix announced Jan. 27 that business was booming. And the service gave most of the credit to the appeal of near-instant delivery of films streamed to subscribers' TV sets via Xbox 360 game systems, some Blu-ray Disc players, Net-enabled TV sets and set-top boxes.

Growing availability of video content at home, work and on the go via YouTube, Hulu, Fancast and other video sites is making us a nation of multitasking video consumers, says analyst James McQuivey of Forrester Research. "What is happening, overall, is people are spending more time with the TV and PC screen because of all these easily accessible video sources," McQuivey says. "Netflix is one of the many enablers of this new addiction."