Separation of... TV and Internet

Jeff Richards, VP of Digital Content Services at Verisign wrote in his company blog last month about the blurring of the lines between TV and Internet. He was referencing another article from the Wall Street Journal pondering why consumers don't seem to be interested in products or services that allow users to watch Internet videos on their TV.

It seems to me that the main reason that this idea isn't catching on is because users are choosing to keep these two lives separate.

Internet videos are generally short, just long enough for us to be able to sit in our office chairs and view them. TV programs are traditionally longer, which is why we park our couches and beds in front of them.

Additionally, I believe that many of us think of content online as being "underground" and TV content as being "mainstream" and we definitely don't want to mix those two worlds. Like keeping your college friends separate from your work friends.

It would just feel wrong to watch youtube videos from our couch. Not to mention the quality of youtube videos is so bad you probably wouldn't want to view it from a TV. But that's quite a stretch to explain the main reasoning of consumers.

All in all, I don't pay $55+ a month to DirecTv to watch (sometimes lesser quality) content that I could watch online for free. And Americans don't want to waste that quality TV viewing time by watching UGC (User generated content).