While distribution platforms are getting morphed by games consoles, the games themselves are becoming a source of programming for TV. Comcast-owned G4TV may have gone to a "Baby Spike" format instead of wall-to-wall shows about videogames, but its X-Play show may be one of the longest running shows in all of television if you include all its former names, "Extended Play" and "Gamespot TV." It has been on the air for more than 10 years, and is the highest-rated original show on G4. (Full disclosure, I formerly worked for G4TV and its predecessor, TechTV, running, among other things, its interactive business units.)

More recently Gameplay HD launched in the US on Dish Networks and Cablevison and takes a fundamentally different approach (Full disclosure, I formerly worked for Gameplay HD's parent, Voom HD networks to develop programming for Gameplay HD.) Its original TV series such as Cinemaddicts and Trailer Park demonstrate the cinematic quality of game graphics in full 1080i, Dolby 5.1 audio.
Meanwhile, video games shows air with alarming regularity on better-known channels such as MTV, Spike, HBO and ESPN.

Add to that the rise of high-profile videogames tournaments, such as DirecTV's Championship Gaming Series, which can be viewed in more than 350 million homes worldwide, and Gameplay HD's Madden 07 Challenge, which also aired on ESPN on Super Bowl Sunday, and you start to get the feeling that competitive gaming will be a TV staple in the future.

In addition to TV shows about games and gamers, some games are actually becoming a form of programming in their own right. So-called casual games like Mah Jong and Scrabble have quietly become a staple of the cable TV diet for millions of Americans, and are more likely to played by women. Indeed, some say that casual games are the new dominant form of daytime TV, threatening the dominance of the venerable soap opera genre.