Blockbuster video was a thing in almost every town.
Netflix mail service was getting big, making huge back catalogs available.
DVD players often included S/PDIF out for surround sound, which was becoming a more common part of home theaters.
Plasma TVs were becoming far more common, dramatically improving picture quality and size versus CRTs.
HBO and other premium channels had already gone digital with set top boxes (that also often supported surround sound), and the death of analog broadcast TV was (theoretically) scheduled for 2006.
So while I probably couldn't find any single specific reason for a peak in 2002, we had a whole series of tech improvements in place that were slowly chipping away at the edges in quality and content availability.
Internet access was widely available.
Blockbuster video was a thing in almost every town.
Netflix mail service was getting big, making huge back catalogs available.
DVD players often included S/PDIF out for surround sound, which was becoming a more common part of home theaters.
Plasma TVs were becoming far more common, dramatically improving picture quality and size versus CRTs.
HBO and other premium channels had already gone digital with set top boxes (that also often supported surround sound), and the death of analog broadcast TV was (theoretically) scheduled for 2006.
So while I probably couldn't find any single specific reason for a peak in 2002, we had a whole series of tech improvements in place that were slowly chipping away at the edges in quality and content availability.