Well, What do you know? Convergence!

After so many years of handwringning by everyone from content owners to media agencies to cable companies, it seems like the convergence of television and the Internet has plopped into our lap. This is yet another example of a bottom up approach: the search/portal companies have gotten enough momentum behind them to just simply offer rich online video experiences that nearly everyone else just needed to get on the wagon.

So, after today, we'll have the formal announcements from Google, as well as Yahoo (with tongue-twistingly named "Yahoo Go"). Believe me, I'm a long-time convert. I've been watching live bike racing at cycling.tv for a year now.

The advertising opportunities are certainly exciting, but not necessarily boundless. Will someone create the TiVo hack to jump past pre-roll commericals? Maybe. But the opportunity to do interactive elements within broadcast spots is very interesting, as is the chance to deliver niche content in a long-tail fashion.