The intergration of online content and TV consumption is quite a hot topic at the moment. Many companies are experimenting with this new phenomenon, in a bid to successfully intergrate the two. Some are getting it wrong, but at least they’re experimenting with new ways to bring the two experiences together.

Some of us are taking matters into our own hands, tweeting from the laptop perched on our knees as we watch TV on the bigger screen in front of us. While hashtags on Twitter go some way to uniting the TV crowd through the internet, the problem of consumption of content remains a sticky issue. Crowding round a computer screen simply isn’t an inclusive activity, with many households having their computer in a separate room to the TV.

Boxee – a new service that’s just raised $6 million in second round funding may just change that. Boxee is a free to use, open-source application that allows you to view and stream content on your TV. The service also has a strong social network element, allowing users to share information publicly about what they’re watching and what they recommend across popular social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

quick intro to boxee from boxee on Vimeo.

Boxee is not a complete hardware solution – you still need to connect your laptop to your TV to avail of the service, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction, bringing online capabilities straight onto your TV screen. The evolution of TV is one area that I’m watching with interest. I suspect it will be a long time before we change our habits and evolve beyond the current habit of ‘one eye on the computer, one eye on the TV’ though a change is clearly needed. Whether the answer lies in the TV or the computer or a whole new device we can’t even comprehend yet, remains to be seen…

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