Mike Berkley makes an excellent point on his blog TVNewsStream regarding the potential buyout of NBC by cable giant Comcast:

What these stories seem to miss is that this a DEFENSIVE move by Comcast, not an aggressive move against its rivals.

The real motivation behind this deal (I believe) is survival. Comcast understands that the price point for distributing TV into homes is going to fall dramatically in the coming years. Comcast’s 3 distribution products, Voice – TV – Internet, are collapsing into just one, single product: Internet. This poses a huge threat to Comcast’s top line.

For those of us who’ve actually been watching this space for the better part of a decade, this is obvious.

Every time I’ve talked about web video and podcasting, I’ve always said that the biggest impediment to these technologies actually enjoying mainstream appeal is the veg factor. Without rehashing what that means in laborious detail, it essentially means that for YouTube and video podcasts and independent producers to see their stuff in front of millions of eyeballs rather than thousands, they need a transport method that your grandma can use.  It has to be easy, and there can’t be a lot of button pushing involved, and preferably it can be easily navigated while under the influence of a six-pack.

We’re rapidly approaching that time.  As I talked about back last month, Leo Laporte is one of the first to make the leap to a mainstream device that offers this sort of consumability of his content in the Roku Netflix box.

Similarly, with a few minor modifications, the new Zune device can offer similar functionality.

The Veoh-D-Link box offers similar functionality (though a limited content set).

I was reminded yesterday as I re-listened to an old podcast I did with John McCrea right around the time that Plaxo was absorbed by Comcast that there’s some forward thinking individuals in the company that want to see the Internet and the viewing experience merge.  That obviously won’t happen until the last drop is bled dry out of the old Heritage Media experience, but positioning themselves for a long end-run at this where they control most aspects of content creation and consumption is yet another building block to accomplish this end.