It's a major problem of every successful niche cable network: Where do you grow from niche? MTV had that problem, and succeeded in broadening its programming beyond music videos into series programming. Now ESPN is going through a similar transformation. ESPN's solid stable of male viewers - both young and old - have made it perhaps the most successful cable network, with everything from the X Games to NFL to the NBA to, of course, it mothership of shows, "SportsCenter." Success comes with big advertising money and ESPN has more than any other cable network - almost $900 …

In Germany, you would never see plastic Coca-Cola cups on a desk sitting in front of "American Idol" judges Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell, and Paula Abdul. That's because product placement, paid or free of charge, is illegal - for all broadcasters - commercial, public, or otherwise. You can't even talk about real brands on the air.

What better way to explain the return of Phil Jackson's calming TV demeanor as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, TV sports anchor Keith Olbermann re-teaming with his longtime TV partner Dan Patrick on Patrick's ESPN radio show, and the Jackson family back on primetime television?

Media consolidation is no doubt on its heels. If companies are not doing it voluntarily, the courts may force a move. Companies like Tribune Co. could be facing a tough call if the Supreme Court doesn't counter a lower court ruling, which only allows media companies to have one media asset in a market. Tribune would be forced to sell off either a newspaper or a TV station in a single market.

Procter & Gamble (P&G) says there is life beyond the 30-second commercial. But TV sellers wonder if that life after death experience includes real media budgets. TV's biggest advertiser - taking its deepest bows -- will cut up to 25 percent of its media buying budgets on cable and another 5 percent on broadcast TV, according to the Wall Street Journal this week following up on a story by the Myers Report. Daytime syndication shows, much dependent on consumer products companies like P&G, will also be cut.

Small local TV stations already find themselves in a death spiral of competition, and some say Nielsen isn't helping by cutting the engine. Increasingly, many are losing ground to local cable operators on one side and the Internet on the other. So, a number of small market stations - from DMA's ranked 50 to 140 -- are canceling their Nielsen Media Research contracts, according to a Broadcasting & Cable article.

Nielsen Media Research executives can wipe some sweat of their brows after releasing some May 2005 Local People Meters data in four major markets. But not everyone is dabbing their respective foreheads.

News that Barry Diller's company, IAC/InterActive Corp., is selling back its 5.4 percent stake in Vivendi Universal Entertainment (VUE) to NBC Universal must be a coincidence -- an advertising market coincidence.

Visions of a hot cable upfront may ultimately mean some new reading glasses or a new card deck for media prognosticators.

It was only a matter of time that a broadcast network would want -- in a financial sense -- to become more like a cable network.