The ongoing financial turmoil provides the first opportunity to examine the correlation between e-commerce, general retail and ad trends. Smart advertisers will use this time to study the segments and trends of Internet shoppers to make more of their online ad dollars.

Nothing focuses the mind quite like a triple header of volatility that begins and ends with change. As a result, many chief executives who are already wrestling with the challenges of digital transformation will likely emerge empowered from the economic turmoil of recent weeks.

Some of the ad dollars lost in the contracting finance, automotive and real estate sectors may not return. That puts the largest TV station groups in a vulnerable position. Advertisers are expected to more selectively spend on just the top two TV stations in a given market, which could favor ABC and Fox, while hurting CBS and NBC.

What's it worth? That is a fundamental question dogging credit markets, banks, businesses, homeowners, Congress and the federal government in this vortex of economic uncertainty.

Don't get too comfortable with recently lowered forecasts for consumer and advertiser spending in 2008 and 2009--being used by media companies to plan budgets. They are likely to go down. Bottom line: The six- to-18-month outlook is dismal for industries dependent upon advertiser and consumer spending.

Mandating, executing and sustaining innovation is a self-determined solution to the overwhelming financial meltdown. It must not be underestimated by media, entertainment and Internet companies, which should be integrating the innovation process into every level of their 2009 corporate budgets.

NBCU's ability to deliver growing profits to GE is largely dependent on quadrennial presidential elections and Olympics boosts. NBCU's fiscal vulnerability is obvious: It is expected to deliver nearly flat $3.1 billion in operating profits on $17.8 billion in sales in 2008. It also has one of the lowest average five-year growth rates through 2009.

The financial implosion occurring on Wall Street will hit Madison Avenue by 2009 with a force that will take down some media companies and prompt many to seek financial relief in digital interactive solutions. It will be media's first painful step toward securing its future.

The mass audience reached by the Big 4 broadcast networks will be eroded by general entertainment cable networks in less than five years, when rivals seize more of their triple advertising dollar, pricing and viewer edge. That isn't a guess, according to Bernstein Research--it's a mathematical certainty.

The multichannel wars were hardly in evidence last week as cable, satellite and telco executives put their best face on a competitive sparring exacerbated by the economy. The question remains: which arena will dominate the broadband landscape when the dust settles?