Thinking about the future of television and pondering its impact on advertising is not the sort of thing you freely admit to in polite company. Never-the-less, my closer friends know that this is my job. In most conversations, my friends cannot envision how the Internet will be an effective vehicle for television.

Here are two recent news stories that point out the error of their ways:

First, witness what happened when comedian Jon Stewart went on CNN's Crossfire to take on Tucker Carlson live on cable television. Jeff Jarvis, president of Advance.net noted:

"That episode got maybe 400,000 viewers on big old powerful CNN? Well that same segment was copied onto the Internet, where it got at least 5 million views. So what's more powerful, the network CNN owns or the network no one owns? So now suddenly the distribution is exploded."

Online video will augment television distribution in a manner similar to how online news expands a newspaper's readership. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and many others already tell us that online readership substantially exceeds their paper readership. So, how far away is it before online viewership substantially expands a producer's audience?

Second, witness last week's announcement of Mark Burnett's upcoming online boxing event. Here are three professional Matches at Ceasar's Palace airing on May 24 at 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. EST, taking advantage of the broadband-connected at-work viewer.

But if that is not enough, ponder this. None of these boxing matches will air on television. Also, Intel and Toyota are sponsoring the event. And for anyone left who does not already know who Mark Burnett is; he is the creator of many hit television shows.

These two online television stories are not the only ones I could pick from. However, they are solid examples that make real the fact that the broadband revolution is blending television and the Internet together in interesting ways.