As the cable and broadcast networks strive to improve audience retention given the currency of commercial ratings they may want to take a page from the book "Moneyball"by Michael Lewis. On one level, it's a book about baseball. Since I'm not a huge baseball fan I procrastinated buying it. My boss extolled its virtues and its application to the television industry. I heard others compliment it, including an executive vice president at a major cable network who made it required reading for his entire staff. So I read it.

Gracie Allen died in 1964, but last night she joined 49 other women being honored by the Paley Center for Media as it inducted its third class of "She Made It" honorees. Allen, who with her husband George Burns "set the bar for all male-female comedy teams to come," once commented that her character "is based on what I call illogical logic." In some ways the Paley Center's "She Made It" program, honoring women creating television and radio, fits the same description.

As we approach the end of 2007, we are finally starting to recognize the implications the U.S. transition to digital broadcasting will have on all the stakeholders of the television medium. And judging by the little app ticking away in the upper right-hand corner of the TV Board home page, we have something less than 437 days to figure it out....

It's been a while since I've contributed a post to this board, and much of that time has been spent thinking about some recent developments taking place at Google, and how they may ultimately reshape the way we plan, buy, watch and think about television. The development that's had me thinking the most was Google's deal to license demographic ratings data from Nielsen. This surprised me for several reasons. First and foremost was that I thought the industry was heading in the opposite direction, that demos were doomed, and that it would be Nielsen that would ultimately need to license …

In late summer 2002, cable systems operator Cox had launched FreeZone, the first advertiser-supplied long-form video-on-demand destination. The market was San Diego. Shortly thereafter, the Turner gang brought the first repurposed ad-supported VOD channel, CNN VOD, to market. MSO's Comcast and Time Warner provided distribution in a smattering of markets. Then the oversaturation of VOD articles commenced....

One of the things that I love about this business is its inability to change in the face of need -- but its acquiescence to do so in the face of necessity. I am speaking of the deal that was just brokered between NBC and Mr. Beers (leave it to the universe to have this announcement go out the same day that the shuffle at Yahoo takes place!).