With the continuing proliferation of screens capable of running video in one form or another and as broadband penetration continues apace, we've seen the extension of TV-originated content onto those other platforms accelerate markedly -- and there is little to suggest it will slow down now.

Last week I attended a meeting of a small gathering of industry luminaries. All of the usual suspects from the key agency food groups were represented: a media planner, a broadcast buyer, a direct responser, a researcher, a communications planner, a creative, a gaggle of onliners and a digitalist -- that's me, a digitalist, given my agency role as a transitionist from the traditional to the new digital televisual media realm....

How many years have you been working in the media/advertising business? How often do you attend industry conferences, Upfront events and panel presentations? How would you rate your responsibilities on a scale of one to ten for how much they are impacted by the changing media landscape? Answering questions like these can help you create a template for your own future.

I'll assume that most of the readers of this column have high-def TVs in their homes. I have three in mine, and I'm pretty sure that I need more. But there are some issues we need to discuss about HDTV. For one, we need high-def commercial standards. There is an embarrassing lack of consistency on specifications for high-def content.

If you thought that user-generated content began with the Web, think again. While the term we give it may be new, it's been with us for many years in the form of letters to editors, announcements of births, deaths and marriages, call-ins to radio shows and so on. We've even had it on TV for decades, in the form of the many international shows showcasing home videos, in pursuit of cheap ratings while displaying what is -- for the most part -- excruciatingly stupid behavior and bad luck.

When I was a bachelor, as well as living alone, up until the early '90s, I found that women that I dated instinctively knew when I would be watching one of my favorite television programs -- NBC's Thursday night sitcom "Cheers" and police drama "Hill Street Blues," CBS's Sunday made-for-TV movies or ABC's Sunday night theatrical broadcast premieres -- and call to chat. "Nothing important," "Just wanted to say hello," they said. "So what are you up to" -- and they proceeded to tell me about their day. What was one to do. I tried multitasking -- no volume, lip …

I recently published a commentary titled "Transformation 2007-2008" that generated many positive responses but some accusations that it was hypocritical. The accusations were based on seemingly contradictory statements about the prognosis for traditional media companies....

It probably seems like someone in my position would want to defend the forced viewership of television commercials, but in actuality I don't. My issue with it actually has nothing to do with consumer behavior; I just would want to make sure I don't pay for that ad. But again, that has nothing to do with the consumer. As a consumer, I feel the need to not watch commercials on occasion. That's my right, and I have the technology to do that.

Last week's TV Board saw a fairly lively debate about the names we give to different video-based consumer experiences (notably TV versus online streaming video) and the extent to which we should differentiate, bearing in mind that to the consumer it's all video in the end. Curiously, it's a debate that could be seen as irrelevant--and of critical importance--at the same time.

When I first joined the television business in the mid-'70s as a secretary in the programming department of BBDO, the media pundits were fairly confident that they knew how people watched television.The tribe gathered in a common, centralized living space around the TV monitor, and each member was assigned a specific task. Someone was designated as the manual dial/channel changer, others oversaw the seating hierarchy and refreshments, and the less fortunate were in charge of reception, which required manual dexterity to be able to simultaneously hold the rabbit ears (antenna), grab the window for better signal conductivity and view the …