It all started one evening in 1978. It seemed harmless at the time. Had I known it would lead to this, I am sure my mother wouldn't have allowed it. What was it? It was "Dave Allen At Large." He, or should I say it, was the show that started my penchant for British programming.

The ironic reality of the writers' strike is its irrelevancy. Why? Read on. Fifty three percent of 300 media, advertising and entertainment executives believe writers should continue to "hold out for everything they want," with 47% voting for them to "pick up their pencils and get back to work." According to the poll conducted by jackmyers.com, a slight majority of a group that should be expected to be more sympathetic to the networks and studios express support for the Writers Guild of America.

I've written before in this column about the bewildering and ever-changing array of formats and options available to advertisers in and around the world of online video. This week saw an announcement from AOL about the launch of another format to add to the mix, but one which steps outside of the constraints of the pre-, mid- or post-roll conventions and beyond simple overlays.

FCC chairman Kevin Martin has been in the news with more regulatory recommendations -- though even by his regal pronouncements he deems his latest "modest."

It is all the rage, a color so powerful that it has changed the color of a peacock and even earned a Nobel Peace Prize. The color? Green.

The issues in the continuing strike by the Writers Guild of America against television studios and networks are reasonably clear: writers want a share of revenues generated by the digital extensions and expansions of the network programming they work on; and they are claiming rights to a share of revenues within the same economic construct from new digital content the studios and networks produce....

With today's rapidly-changing and ever-evolving digital landscape, buyers and planners have their work cut out for them probably more than at anytime in the history of electronic media. DVR penetration today is at 18% nationally and Jupiter Research says that by 2010, 50 million American households will be ruled by TiVo and other DVR devices. To their client's growing ad-zapping fears, many agencies have compensated by shifting some of their buys away from so-called "traditional" media and instead putting a heavy focus on alternative platforms such as broadband and video-on-demand. However, from a ROI standpoint, these buys are leaving significant …

I know I'm not the first to point out the sometimes amazing similarities between politics and reality TV, but as the election season (pre-election season?) drags on, that similarity becomes even more marked. For example, look at the multitude of candidates for each party's nomination -- so many that the whole affair currently feels like the audition rounds of "American Idol" or maybe the opening rounds of "Survivor" or "Big Brother," with the obligatory "like-me" positioning of all involved; and the caution against too much back-biting that slips away as territory becomes marked out and threats emerge.

At the close of September, The Wall Street Journal published an article about the cable systems operators' best-kept secret, Project Canoe. The article stated that the industry effort led by Comcast and Time Warner reflected the operators' recognition that they're all in the same boat -- a canoe per chance -- and must standardize the interactive technology in the thousands of cable systems throughout the country -- the paddle metaphor, we imagine -- in order to garner a greater share of the national ad dollars, the current(cy) "that flows almost exclusively to TV networks."

What's most fascinating about the Writers Guild of America strike is that most in the industry who are not closely aligned with one side or the other don't have strong opinions on who's right and who's wrong. Most strikes that I recall - and there aren't any in recent memory - polarized huge segments of society. Auto workers. Flight controllers. Baseball players. If you recall these strikes, you can probably recall whose side you were on.