Facebook's public offering and economic promise look like a leap of faith, constricted by nagging concerns about whether it can monetize exploding mobile device use with new social search, advertising and commerce models.

The question for the traditional broadcast TV networks this upfront season is, how do you compete with 25 hours of original programming on YouTube's Awesomeness TV, and Netflix's ever-popular replays of entertainment, kids and even sports cable programs?

Specialized data management will drive next stage innovation in social media and other forms of interactivity. But can the richness of human experience, curiosity and invention be replaced by sophisticated tech engines and algorithms?

Facebook's developing social search framework will be a catalyst for redefining advertising and monetizing mobile, unleashing a torrent of new revenue and value that eventually will make its $100 billion IPO valuation look like child's play.

The undertow of disruptive innovation and rapid change in media is unprecedented. Video's measured penetration and effectiveness will be the key that unlocks a windfall of digital value.

As distinctions blur across screens on Internet-connected tablets, smartphones, computers and televisions, two things will happen. Economics and content will become more integrated and ubiquitous, and a more universal interactive experience will emerge.

While it took cable three decades to dominate upfront advertising, it is as vulnerable as the broadcast networks to inroads from ad-supported Internet players Google, YouTube, Yahoo Hulu, Facebook and others.

Congress' rare bipartisan move to auction broadcast spectrum to create more wireless Internet systems overlooks one important fact. The reallocated spectrum most likely will be used by dominant mobile operators like Apple, rather than entrepreneurs and innovators.

The fledgling mobile transactions market, which some experts expect to reach $1 trillion globally by 2015, is about to get a hyper-boost from Facebook, Twitter, Square and other social media players that consider e-sales the new end game.

The appeal of traditional television to Google and Apple is apparent in the changing economics of the business: Subscription revenues growth is accelerating, advertising is holding its own and video is becoming the streaming gold of an exploding mobile ecosystem.