Direct-to-Internet video series like “LonelyGirl15″ and “In the Motherhood” attract a good number of eyeballs and plenty of buzz. But making money on them is elusive, and it could be because even widespread broadband Web won’t necessarily overtake TV as the prime mass medium:

“There’s still no evidence that the Web format will be a dominant rather than supplementary format,” said [Forrester Research analyst James] McQuivey, who pointed out that 18 percent of Internet viewers are now connecting their computers to TV monitors, eliminating the need to produce video for computers. “Will this new visual language morph back into the established language of television? What is the long-term role of these short-form shows?”

That “18 percent” stat was clumsily conveyed — the doubling-up of television and computer media through the same big-screen display just means that households can toggle back and forth between Web and TV more seamlessly. It’s not going to impact the creation of more Webisodes.

But the point is valid. Given the asynchronous nature of Web content, we might not see an online show ever become a broad-based feature series. Television’s simplicity and accessibility continues to be its strength: Turn it on and just watch, along with a few million other viewers, versus click on this link, click on another link, then wait for video to start loading, etc.