Acting on trends reshaping media will be more important than contemplating them in 2010. Propelled by an improving economy and mainstream digital adoption, the new year is time for companies to take a deep dive into interactivity.

Social media and interactive consumers will take the lead in transforming the multi-screen media landscape in 2010. Facebook and Twitter are the most powerful forces in digital media today.

Advertising is not a big part of the proposed Comcast NBCU merger -- yet. The road to revenue growth is paved with interactive ad riches, but how long will it take to ramp up?

Broadcasters are about to experience the equivalent of the Big Bang, warns Akamai Technologies CEO Paul Sagan, a broadcast and cable veteran whose company facilitates more than one-fifth of the world's Web traffic.

Arianna Huffington says she will not charge consumers for content, and that The Huffington Post will rely on interactive advertising and other applications to pay the bills. Over the next year, The Huffington Post will roll out new formats allowing advertisers and users to interact and exchange information.

Advertising will not pay the freight for digital media, like it has for newspapers and television, as it morphs into an interactive experience riveted on transactions, according to Publicis Groupe Chairman and CEO Maurice Levy.

Cable networks are a sweet spot in a media industry struggling to find its financial footing. They are driving conglomerates earnings as well as richly priced deals, and will be a growth vehicle for branded content across all digital platforms.

The unintended consequences of Yahoo and AOL repositioning themselves as online content companies and magnets for television advertisers is that they will be targets for acquisition or strategic partnerships in an improving economy.

Hulu's online video platform may be a success with the masses, but it will have to begin charging for at least some of its content if it doesn't want to destroy the $185 billion television ecosystem it draws from.

A case can be made just a month into the new TV season that the Big 4 networks are not taking enough strategic risk to ameliorate the continuing erosion of ad revenues, audiences and content economics. It's not an option: It's do or die.