What a disappointment the previous season of "The Office" turned out to be. A show that was once a glory of television comedy has now become merely "pretty good." Last year at this time, I pondered whether any sitcom could retain its creative energy for more than seven seasons, especially after the departure of its main star, and now I think we have the answer. Unlike other great comedies that decided to go out on top ("The Dick Van Dyke Show," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Cheers" and "Seinfeld"), "The Office" clearly lingered past its natural end point.

We all think we know what television is. After all, we talk about it all the time. But my concept of what television currently is has been changing. Three recent events confirmed to me that television is evolving in a direction that requires a change in definition.

Speaking in general terms, AMC's "The Pitch" is the smartest and most entertaining new reality series of the year. On a more specific note, it is also the most enlightening, at least for those of us who often wonder about the creative side of advertising.

Origination addresses embedded in the set-top box and in the data stream, which enable household or even viewer identification, must be anonymized to protect consumer privacy. There are two main addresses - the IP Address and the MAC address. While both addresses apply to the set-top box, they are not the same.

Once a quarter, Nielsen takes a break from ruining the mood of TV executives who can't understand why their shows don't get higher ratings, and delivers the calming message that all is generally OK in the TV industry. Last week was no different. Nielsen's Cross Platform Report for the fourth quarter of 2011 showed once again that for all the hyperventilating about Hulu, Netflix, Rokku, Apple TV, Blu-ray players, iPads, smartphones and other potential TV-busting devices, television viewing habits remain largely unchanged.

Programming executives at the broadcast networks next week will be locked away in conference and screening rooms, making all-important decisions about their 2012-13 schedules. The following week, they will each try their best to convince advertisers and journalists they have a roster of fresh and exciting new shows that will play well with their veteran series. What better time to remind them what they did right and wrong last year? As we hear what they have to say the week of May 14, it could be helpful to remember the many misfires noted below.

Let's give a nod this week to organizations in the advanced television space, specifically the ATVEF (the Advanced Television Enhancement Forum) and the ATSC (the Advanced Television Systems Committee). Both of these groups are actively involved in advancing compliance by helping to form and advance technical standards for industrywide use.

Of all the potential uses of return-path data, (RPD) local measurement arguably offers one of the top initial values. Recently I interviewed Pat Dineen, SVP Nielsen about his work using RPD in conjunction with Nielsen's current local panel methodologies. Pat spoke of hybridization of RPD with the Nielsen panel in all three types of local market methodologies - the People Meter Markets, the Household meter markets and the Diary measured markets. This method offers the ability to include Nielsen demographics while expanding the household sample size.

Did you hear the one about the standup comedians who decided to become Internet entrepreneurs? First it was Louis C.K. and now it's Aziz Ansari and Jim Gaffigan who are capitalizing on a new business model -- stand-up on demand -- that could theoretically alter the dynamic among performers, distributors and consumers of television comedy.