There has been so much coverage lately about filmmakers releasing their products on the Web, and how so many households are finally doing what industry types thought would happen before the turn of the millennium--a convergence of the last mile between telephony and television. But, that convergence never really happened, did it?

The annual trade show and conference of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association was held in Atlanta earlier this week. Since this show sits squarely in the middle of media trade show season, there was not much new ground to cover....

Let's talk about brands for a minute. For all the excitement over launching a new idea and trying to market it to the masses, let's not lose sight of one simple fact; that a brand is nothing more than the tangible expression of an experience. A brand is not a business unto itself.

A question that seems to come up a lot about online ad campaign recommendations concerns the balance of composition and coverage. To be more precise, clients who often prioritize coverage over composition often wonder why online agencies tend toward the opposite approach.

Citizen journalism is also known as participatory journalism. For instance, this weekend I saw video footage of the devastating tornados in Tennessee on the news as well as online. Much of the footage was taken by amateurs--aka, someone with a video camera....

You would if you were Claria. And man, are they doing it in style.

Just a few years ago one would have had to spend upwards of a billion dollars to launch a national sports network or national cable channel. Money alone did not guarantee distribution. Gatekeepers were everywhere. But the transition from network to networked TV is ongoing and new business models are emerging.

As television evolves into an IP-based model and all programming becomes available in an on-demand format, with content being made available from multiple locations, what will happen to the brands we know and recognize in the current TV landscape, and what model will emerge in the not-so-distant future?

We're well overdue for the interactive ad industry's equivalent of the Strategic Arms Limitation talks. Ad buying is once again starting to get too cumbersome.

Is it me, or is the hype of online dating sites a thing of the past? We didn't hear all that much about them for a while. Now there are TV spots with Dr. Phil endorsing Match.com--although I haven't seen much promotion online for the site.