Good news for those of us in the TV history business: we've learned that George Clooney and his producing partner Grant Heslov are developing a feature film about the tumultuous goings-on behind-the-scenes of the hit 1960s variety show, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour." Based on "Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored story of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," by David Bianculli (it's very good!), we expect the film will revolve around Tommy Smothers' battle with CBS to keep his show on the air as the network tightened its reigns and increased its censorship demands as the pair didn't veer from taking on …

How do you define a video view? The answer varies depending on who you ask. Is it once the video starts playing? Does it need to buffer? Does a certain amount of the video need to be played before a view is counted? There is currently no transparency in the measurement of a video view. Despite the rapid growth of the online video industry, right now you can't accurately compare video views between two programs, even if they are on the same platform. Your 35 million views may not be any better than someone else's 500,000 views.

Traditionally, marketers have targeted consumers though publishers, whose content attracted a given audience. Today, we're increasingly seeing a "disintermediation" in which marketers are reducing their emphasis on publishers and content and relying on data to assure that they are reaching their target audience. This practice of buying/selling advertising by audience alone is awfully reminiscent of securitization in finance. The extreme to which it's being pushed is akin to the subprime mortgage crisis, where low-quality mortgages were packaged as premium assets to unsuspecting investors. This led to the 2008-09 economic meltdown.

We are on the edge of a transformational change in mobile advertising. Coming from a history of 20 years in brand management, I've seen a range of ad units in my career, but nothing compares to the effectiveness of video. The key however, is how to present the video in an environment that is relevant, and present it to a user who is open and willing to receive that message.

The Advanced Advertising Media Project (AAMP) released some results from its Phase II Video On Demand (VOD) research on November 16th. This much-needed look into the mind and behaviors of the T/V (Television/Video) consumer promises valuable insights into consumer acceptance of advertising on the Free VOD format.

The DVR phenomenon, followed by VOD, and then the tsunami of OTT, was launched by a universal disdain for appointment-based television viewing. The notion of watching any video anywhere at any time has been the holy grail of new and emerging technologies and services such as VOD and online video.

Mochila sought to connect news sites with publishers, but its approach to syndication created too much friction to be adopted widely and take off. Despite the A-list roster of advisors and investors, the company is looking for buyers.

Social is big. Video is big. E-commerce is big. But social video commerce? Puh-lease! I'm a natural skeptic when it comes to buzzwords like this. That's why I jumped at the opportunity to host a webinar with retailers Crutchfield and Advance Auto Parts to try and dissect this latest video trend like a seventh grader working on his first lab frog.

Who the heck knows what the future may bring, right? Well, with New Year 2012 coming up fast, I'm not going to let that stop me. I'm going to give you some predictions, all expanding upon trends and developments several other writers and I have been noting in this column throughout the past year. It will be fun in December of 2012 to take a look back at this piece to see to what extent these prognostications prove to be accurate.