Media buyers traditionally have asked the media for availabilities in the form of proposals and then negotiated with the sellers for the best configuration of ad positions, pricing and other "added value" elements. In this approach, the buyers function as supplicants, with a great deal of control over pricing and proposal elements in the hands of the media. One result has been the development of a kind of secret media marketplace in which only the seller knows for sure what the lowest possible cost is for a given media schedule.

No, really, this summer I'm moving to Media, Pa. The name is just a coincidence, but it got me thinking about what a major disruption/transition can do to your content appetite.

Although familiar to any of us with experience in developing content for the Web, the specter of usability testing is something that has yet to make its mark on the world of TV. Understandable, you may say. After all, the TV screen is basically something that is viewed -- mostly, but not always -- in full-screen video mode, and almost always without the requirement to actually do anything. But of course, all this is beginning to change.

Last week peer-to-peer backboned video destination site Joost received a lot of press, thanks in part to its content deal -- clips and classics for now -- with Viacom. In the articles that I've read, the service was either referred to as a YouTube killer and/or a cable company or cable systems killer. Got the YouTube killer reference. All user-generated content broadbanded sites are going after the eyeballs aggregation leader, and thusly, will be dynamically positioned by the trade community as such. Got it. But the latter reference -- cable company or cable systems killer -- is the appellation that …

Is the future of television the infomercial? Is NBC's "30 Rock" the most sophisticated infomercial in television history, an amazingly effective and often blatant commercial message for GE? What's the line between programming and advertising, and how clearly defined should that line be?

One of the industry trends that really bothers me is the way the term "ROI" gets thrown around. Networks and agencies are talking about "delivering ROI" to their customers. I frankly think this conversation is really silly, and just a deftly political, side-stepped answer to a desire for more accountability. It's an answer that is understandable, but we are asking the wrong question.