I've been thinking a lot about CES and NATPE and the extraordinary disconnect between what is happening on the technology side, and what is happening on the programming/advertising side.

Really it can be argued that from the moment Tivo arrived on the planet, our business had a running start at understanding/evolving it's relationship with viewers and advertisers.

But the truth is - it hasn't happened.

Tv is pretty much the same as it was 5 years ago. And all the denials aside, the projection of Tivo like devices in the home suggests that we continue to ignore this evolution at our peril.

First of all - consumers want the freedom to watch what they want when they want it.

Second - broadband is a fat pipe. It's being laid into virtually every living room in American.

Third. People don't hate all advertising - just the stuff that clearly has no need to reach them (I don't like ads for Women's makeup, call me crazy!).

It seems to me that our customers have been promised new services for a very long time... And we've continued to say that this media evolution is right around the corner. Well now the Consumer Electronics folks aren't going to wait any longer - they're going to build a new highway into America's living rooms (and cars, and handheld devices, and phones, and wrist watches... You get the idea).

And once it's built - there's no telling what will travel on that highway. It may be network TV shows, it maybe Hollywood movies, but it won't discriminate... So competition is very much on the horizon.

The one thing I found in comparing CES to NATPE is that advertisers had pulled their head out of the sand, and were actively thinking about new ways to have relationships with their customers.

There are plenty of brands that I'd enjoy watching on my TV. I'd watch Sharper Image. I'd watch BMW (I already do). I'd watch a whole bunch of fashion info if it were tied to catalogs I like (lands end, LL Bean, Brooks Brothers, Banana Republic).

Maybe I'm rambling, but it seems to me that folks are using Bittorrnet and such, not because they want to - but because they're forced to. And advertisers will figure that our long before TV networks do. If advertiser find a way to do business directly with viewers - then the model is really exploded.

Once the smoke clears - there will be something entirely new in it's place. And that's worth thinking about.