After I published last week's TV Board, I was admonished by a friend - a charming, very tall, Olympic-swimming Brit: "You of all people should understand that set top boxes are tuning meters. Therefore the use of the words 'audience' and 'viewers' is specious. Tuning is a surrogate for viewers - and, depending on the channel and demo, can be quite good or quite poor."

I am squeamish when it comes to competitive conflict -- especially when the stakes are high. I am the person who can't watch playoff games, the Olympics, or debates. I watched almost all of the 2008 Olympics from my DVR. Why? Because the thought of not knowing if Michael Phelps won was too much for me to handle. So last night, knowing what was at stake, I chose to have dinner with a dear friend and set the DVR to record the debate. The one wrinkle in my plan: I never considered that the restaurant would have a TV.

Tomorrow night promises to provide some great one-off TV in the shape of a vice-presidential debate that is likely to draw higher ratings than usual and that might actually matter in political terms (certainly more so than is normally the case).

A month ago, I was able to gets my hands on one week of mid-summer set top box data from a U.S. market that is situated far, far, far west. My query was simple: I'm curious to ascertain whether viewers that watch a particular TV daypart during a given day, such as daytime television, watch any other TV dayparts, (early fringe, prime, late night) during the same 24-hour period. I was fortunate enough to be partnering with a responsive pay TV distributor, which had licensed a sophisticated technology that enabled such scrutiny.

When I was younger, I attended military school. Many will find the fact that I was kicked out of military school less than surprising. But I did make some lasting friendships in the three-plus years I was there. A former classmate of mine runs a multibillion-dollar division of a large conglomerate. His group advertises heavily on television. Last week he had a problem and asked me to attend an advertising planning event with a few of his key executives. After a long presentation on brand strategy, media mix and tactical plans, the lights came up and everyone turned to me....

Coming off of what is possibly the worst prime-time Emmy show (at least according to the critics and the ratings), a week of a political and financial roller-coaster rides that will likely leave the local television industry in the proverbial toilet, I find it hard to focus on the upside. The only highlight of my week was watching David Letterman take McCain and his campaign to task the way only Letterman can.

I'm just barely old enough to remember what was, at the time, the most heated election in history. The year was 1972. At stake--tens of millions of dollars, and certain banishment for the losing candidate. As I recall, the entire campaign played out exclusively on television--the first (and only) election ever to do so. And the 18-month campaign turned negative--right out of the box.

Inevitably, whenever members of the media community and trade discuss TV addressable video advertising, the focus of their attention is on the technology, the software, while the cable operator platform is positioned as a platter supporting the sumptuous application. The buzz is always about the technologist with colored commentary proffered about the operator's future expansive plans. So I have to admit that I was surprised to be reminded last week that cable operators are capable of delivery addressable video advertising to the zone, loosely defined as a gaggle of zip codes configured by the municipality when the cable operator and …

I am excited and proud to be involved with the Council for Research Excellence. Its mission and purpose represent the best our industry has to offer.

Up until about two weeks ago, I was one of the many, many people who had not developed any pattern at all of viewing video on mobile devices. In essence, I hadn't bought into the reality of mobile video, even though I was more than willing to accept that it would grow over time as the user experience improved. But that was in the past -- in the bad old days before I had got my hands on an iPhone 3G and found myself seduced by its almost sensual appeal.