Any question you may have had about whether the broadcast and broadband worlds are converging would be put to rest after spending a couple of days at the NAB Show being held in Las Vegas this week.

This year's NAB Show heavily emphasizes content in a technology-transformed world. For starters, NAB has set up "Content Central" a showcase section in the Main Central Hall featuring a cluster of new media vendors. Within the Content Central area is a specially created "Content Theater" where back-to-back discussion panels run throughout the show, including one I'll be moderating this morning entitled "Broadband Media Workflow: Hitting the Viewing Window," with executives from MTV, CTV and Akamai.

Elsewhere at the show, there are numerous sessions with titles like "The New Hollywood! A New World of Entertainment!", "TV 2.0 - Video When, Where and How You Want It" and "Video Search for Unlimited Channels." In short, NAB has gone full throttle toward content, which in my opinion is a very good thing. That's because a key NAB constituency, local television broadcasters, have seen their market positions impacted by broadband, particularly as network TV programs are now widely accessible online. Broadcasters today are feeling the beginning of what local newspapers have felt as the Internet's use has become pervasive.

But by elevating the focus on content, NAB is helping local TV broadcasters better understand how broadband presents opportunities, not just challenges. With strong expertise in video production, deep local roots and longstanding advertising relationships, local TV broadcasters are in some ways actually well-positioned to benefit from broadband.

The key challenge for local broadcasters is to take a fundamentally different view of their businesses. No longer constrained by their local market's boundaries, local broadcasters can play on a bigger stage, distributing compelling content to viewers living thousands of miles away. One syndication example, between CBS's stations and Yahoo, already generates over 13 million video views per month, all incremental to those at CBS's own site.

NAB's focus on content in a technology-driven world, follows a similar focus by the Consumer Electronics Association and NATPE at their respective shows over the past few months. Taken together, local broadcasters are being given many opportunities to understand the changing video landscape and how to profit from it.