Is Fox out to once and for all destroy the mighty "American Idol"? It certainly looks that way, though I can't imagine why the network would want to do so. After all, where would Fox have been during the last ten years without "Idol"? Would the successes of "House," "24," "The Simpsons," "Family Guy" and "Bones" have been enough to keep the network alive and well without the star-making competition powerhouse at the center of it all?

Why do we need a TV season? That was the provocative question that NBC's research head Allan Wurtzel posed to Bill Carter in The New York Times last week. After all, television is in business 52 weeks a year, and DVRs and the Internet have given viewers the power to set their own schedules. Logically we should treat television as a year-round, not seasonal, enterprise.

This is the week to talk about the future of media. One thing I've learned in trying to make predictions about media: The rate of change always seems to be occurring much faster than it actually is. Maybe it's because media industry professionals are immersed in early phases of technology so, just as in a car, objects in our side mirror appear closer than they actually are.

Something unexpected happened this week while I was watching NBC's "The New Normal," which after four episodes has distinguished itself as the best new sitcom of the fall season. As the characters assembled around a table for dinner and began exchanging their sometimes combustible views on election-year issues, I suddenly started thinking about "The Draft Dodger," an episode of the comedy classic "All in the Family" way back in 1976 that also featured a politically super-charged dinner scene that reflected conflicting attitudes of its era.

Bill Feininger, SVP of media measurement for FourthWall Media, began his career as an engineer at Honeywell, and after several other positions moved to Nielsen Media Research where he worked in interactive televisions and advanced advertising. His current job at FourthWall involves the launch of a new and exciting set-top-box data analytics service, Massive Data. In my interview with him, Bill talks about his work at FourthWall, his responsibilities in building an analytics business collecting set-top-box data from 1.3 million homes and growing, the profile of the Massive Data footprint, the impact of connected TV on the measurement business, and …

The 64th Primetime Emmy Awards presentation on Sunday brings with it one of the most exciting award-show cliffhangers in recent years: Will AMC's "Mad Men" become the first dramatic series ever to receive five consecutive awards for Outstanding Drama Series?

With the conclusion of the presidential campaign's convention phase, it seems apparent that television is becoming increasingly irrelevant to this year's election. Oh sure, the campaigns will try to battle it out over the airwaves, and television will continue to provide the loudest microphone, but the real decisions will probably be made by voters who aren't even following the campaign on TV.

Want to increase your online revenue per click? Try television. I'm not kidding. We just ran a series of tests that show conclusively that television advertising boosts revenue per click for online and offline marketing channels, even social media & affiliates. Overall, the studies revealed a definite positive halo effect of TV over time on a wide range of online and offline marketing channels including radio, print, direct mail and word of mouth.

Remember when the audition shows on Fox's "American Idol" became must-see television specifically because Simon Cowell was so unforgiving with his withering condemnations of sub-par singers? The opposite is true of NBC's "The Voice" and Fox's "The X Factor." On those shows, the auditions are all about playing to the viewers' emotions and instantly investing them in the outcomes of certain performances. It's not about waiting for people to make fools of themselves; it's about hearing the next moving or inspirational story and then anxiously waiting to see or hear how the judges react to the performance that follows.

Josh Chasin, chief research officer of comScore, is an expert in IP measurement who launched his career at Arbitron and is currently overseeing all research initiatives at comScore. ComScore has four core business models, from audience analytics to advertising analytics to Web / monetization analytics and mobile operator analytics. In my interview with him, Josh talks about his work at comScore, the changing metrics in the online world, out-of-home insights and the importance of understanding how the online world works and evolves in terms of content delivery. Josh also shares his views on what the media landscape will look like …