Get The Office At Your Office

You can make the argument, though, that originality online--as on TV--isn't always the best business. Disney, for example, has resisted doing original Web video for ABC and the Disney Channel, but it's had huge success airing online reruns. Besides the popularity of Lost online, the Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack and Cody started getting its best TV ratings ever after airing episodes online. "This validates what we already knew: that broadband does not take away from television," says Disney--ABC Television Group president Anne Sweeney.

Maybe not, but it could ultimately meld with TV. After all, if you have a cable modem, you already get your Internet and TV through the same pipe. A decade from now, there could just be longer and shorter shows from the same companies (NBCUniversalYouTube, say) that you play on your HD video wall, telepathy phone or iPod contact lens. Or, at least, online and TV could well be separate but more equal. To advertisers, who still pay for most of TV, a picture is a picture. "We're not really calling it TV anymore--it's video," says Jeff Minsky, director of emerging media platforms at advertising agency OMD Digital. Call it what you want, the future of TV is coming soon to your screen. And your other one, and your other one, and your other one.