In the long run, LG’s partnership with Netflix to bundle the online movie rental system into its new flat-screen TVs might prove to be the biggest news from CES last week.  The announcement didn’t get the press other gadgets received from the show.  After all, the idea for the technology has been around since you still had rabbit ears on top of your idiot box.  But the South Korean underdog turned household name - together with the leader of online rentals - may be the first to make the inevitable marriage of TV and the Web work.

Turnkey, pre-packaged solutions like the LG-Netflix partnership are likely to be Joe consumer’s first foray into the brave new world of Web TV.  Whether its LG’s closed-platform solution or the next iteration from a challenger, the on-demand-everything model is already upon us.

While volumes have been written about the death of the 15-second spot and the demise of broadcasters, there is also the flip side.  The new landscape will provide endless opportunities for advertisers and networks alike, including new business models built on narrowcasting and niche marketing.  Media and hardware companies planning properly for the not-too-distant future will write the rules of the new game.  The impact Apple’s iTunes had on the music industry may pale in comparison to the sea change ahead in television.

Think about how much the media content we consume reflects and defines our personalities and lifestyles.  This information, coupled with the mountains of consumer data compiled on each and every one of us every single day, will put more power in the hands of advertisers and networks than ever before.  Tomorrow’s call letters for your favorite “station” just might be your favorite car, beer, or shoe brand.  Networks could end up as production houses and mere brokers of their own content, not delivery platforms.

Tomorrow’s advertising messages will be custom-tailored to meet your lifestyle based on algorithms that match your content consumption patterns with other relevant data about you.  Market segmentation studies will stop gathering dust and become actionable play books for an evolved, efficient and cost-effective version of the traditional media buys.

None of these are revolutionary ideas at this point.  And sure, the LG-Netflix partnership rightfully didn’t generate too much noise among the barrage of sexy gadgets to come out of CES.  But it might just be the tipping point towards Web TV for the masses.  Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of TV as we know it?