THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM BEHIND CW -- Does anyone else find it ironic that the first big move CBS makes after being deconsolidated to unlock market value, is cut a deal consolidating something to unlock market value? Surely, the broadcast network business was in need of some consolidation, but we haven't witnessed anything like this since the DuMont network signed off in 1956. If anything, the trend in broadcasting has been more, not less.

TELL A VISION -- It seems the new CBS may have more vision than we first gave it credit for. Just to prove it, CBS has made Vision an official operating unit within its new media empire.

GOING PUBLIC -- What with a relatively strong economy and an even stronger stock market (if you exclude last Friday, that is), it's becoming quite fashionable to go public again. And we don't just mean IPOs.

2006 PREDICTIONS--PART I - When something big happens in Media Town, it is always big news in the media, so we were not surprised by the coverage devoted to New York's mass transit strike. What did surprise us was the apparent disinterest in another big story: the protracted work stoppage of Real Media Riffs.