Devoted to show business and the entertainment industry

A couple things have held back the merging of the Internet and Television, and when they're taken care of, things will begin to move quickly.

One key element is the way to move forward is with retailers like Target (TGT) and Wal-Mart (WMT), who have given warnings concerning digital downloads and potentially cutting off shelf space for DVDs. That has more power than ever as DVD sales dropped for the first time recently.

What that's all about is how to transition to the digital age without destroying existing business relationships. With the DVD being one of the major profit generators for the industry, they're not about to jeopardize that. With Wal-Mart recently dropping their video service, it makes it even harder in this regard until they make other arrangements.

That leads to the second problem which is content itself. The major reason for the foray into the convergence of the two not taking off so far, has been the lack of quality content.

It seems at this time, in spite of the huge increase of user-generated content on the Internet, that it's not enough to make it worthwhile for consumers to deal with the hassle of dealing with it. Companies also have to have enough professional content available online to make it worth their time to develop the technology needed to make is simple and easy to do.

There are obviously huge challenges ahead, from existing contracts, the home network, cable and satellite companies, being user-friendly and to making it more of a TV than an Internet experience i.e. getting rid of the keyboard and using a remote. All of this is being worked on now, but the driver of it all to get it going will be content from Hollywood. Without that nothing makes sense.

For Hollywood to take full advantage of this, they need to move quickly across numerous interests. There should be a full blown strategy to attack every obstacle before them and solve it. It's that important in my eyes.

Why? The software is quickly becoming available for anyone with a little bit of creativity and talent to start developing interesting and engaging content. Once that happens, all bets are off. Hollywood is in the drivers seat for a short period of time. They can take the lead and show the way, or be left behind.

There's no one that can compete in the video market at this time like Hollywood can, at least on the entertainment side of it. To avoid what the music industry is going through, they need to take leadership and respond quickly to the growing demand.