For the better part of a year, TV critics hounded Comcast's potential ownership of NBC Universal -- especially in regards to where Comcast would stand with NBC affiliates. The threat? Making NBC into a cable network. Apparently, critics were focusing on the wrong network. According to reports, cable retransmission discussions have become so heated between Fox and its affiliates that senior network executives have threatened to look to other forms of "distribution" if things don't go their way.

Key to the surprising Super Bowl Chrysler commercial featuring Eminem was a striking message left for viewers to ponder -- that building automobiles is something deep in the genetic makeup of Detroit citizens. That's serious stuff, attached to Eminem's always deep perspective. Then we were left with graphic at the end of the spot: "Imported from Detroit."

Everyone has preferences when it comes to paying for entertainment content does have its preferences. Increasingly, consumers prefer to pay for movies, and not so much for TV shows.

Spending $3 million on a Super Bowl ad -- and then releasing it early on YouTube? Someone is losing "content" exclusivity on the commercial. In a continual effort to monetize the entire Super Bowl marketing experience, a number of advertisers again released their TV commercials in advance of the Super Bowl itself. What was going on here?

Digital video executives still know what traditional TV advertisers want: the right message at the right time, perhaps with competitors placed in different commercial pods or not in the show at all. Forget about "behavioral targeting" and "return on investment" and all the bells and whistles the Internet seems to promise marketers. Let's go with the easy stuff.

Just another day in Los Angeles where the entertainment cart comes before the horse -- and the road as well. Longtime L.A.-based Farmers Insurance inked a $700 million, 30-year naming-rights deal with the big sports arena/promotional group Anschutz Entertainment Group for a new NFL stadium in downtown L.A.. Trouble is, L.A. doesn't have definite plans for that stadium -- nor a football team yet.

Trouble at Hulu may mean only one sure thing: CBS and Time Warner executives are sure to wink at you. With Fox and ABC reportedly considering pulling some programming off the successful premium digital video service -- as well as pulling back from a potential $2 billion Hulu IPO -- CBS and Time Warner should get some credit at this point for not joining the three other major TV entities that are Hulu partners (along with media investment firm Providence Equity Partners).

You probably won't see any TV commercials touting disgust over films in movie theaters during ABC's upcoming Academy Awards telecast. Still, when you hear that an NFL Players Association (NFLPA) TV ad has been rejected by CBS -- the network that makes hundreds of millions of dollars year from the NFL -- you might think other factors are at work here.