Music's long struggle with the web has been well documented. As consumers shifted from CDs to digital media, music labels, artists, and the RIAA have struggled with how to cope. While some have decided to sue consumers for $22,500 per song, others have found ways to embrace the web.

Now Microsoft's Director of Consumer and Online in the UK predicts that the same turmoil is going to hit the television industry in the next few years. And unless the TV business "aggressively move its content online" and builds "a critical mass of content that the traditional buyers of airtime will understand and buy into," they will face an "iTunes moment" where their online business becomes dependent on Apple. According to The Guardian, Microsoft's Ashley Highfield believes that TV execs have just two or three years to adapt or be thrown into chaos the music industry is currently experiencing:

"So realistically I think the industry has about two to three years to adapt or face its iTunes moment. And it will take at least that long for media brands to build credible, truly digital brands. But, importantly, I do believe TV does have a small two to three year window in which to respond."

More than anything, Mr. Highfield believes that TV needs to find ways to generate significant revenue from online video and to make it easy for advertisers to buy ads in bulk for online TV. He also strongly suggested that the TV industry aggressively move its content online, on its own terms.

It's interesting that it is a Microsoft exec making these suggestions and mentioning Apple as the online enemy of the TV industry. We can see his logic though: you don't want one company to dominate online sales like Apple does with music in the iTunes store. The music industry's been between a rock and a hard place for a long time now.

However, we think there are a lot of flaws to Highfield's logic. TV doesn't make its revenues based on sales, as the music industry does, but by advertising - something that is both effective and measurable on the web. We've also seen TV more readily embrace the web successfully, most notably with Hulu.

So yes, TV needs to embrace the online world or suffer losing control over its content distribution. However, the television industry is already light years ahead of the recording industry in that regard.