My early morning Tour de France live viewing barely gets out of my dreamworld-- I kept seeing Marg Helgenberger and William Peterson on carbon fiber bikes.

Mull over this possible tagline for a hypothetical MediaPost trade ad: "Coming soon, from the writer of 'TV Watch'--a new upfront TV advertising story."

This summer, for TV executives and talent, it's all about being hot and whining, and all business--nothing but business.

Home Box Office always had history on its side--and sometimes, innovation. Just when you thought the pay-cable network couldn't pull off a big creative show, it gave you "Six Feet Under" or "Deadwood." But now HBO has bigger hurdles to jump--trying to give TV viewers a show with big creative juice and big ratings.

It's July, and ABC has started up the upfront--for 2007.

This summer two different European-centic sports are offering two different TV results with U.S. viewers. The early days of this year's Tour de France lost almost 50 percent of its U.S. viewers versus a year ago, while during a similar time, U.S. viewers for the World Cup soccer event climbed 65 percent versus four year ago.

It's a tough road being special in TV these days, when everything is instantly available. That goes double for the Emmys.

Say what you will about Fox's sweaty upfront presentation in May, its sometimes brusque leader in Rupert Murdoch, its history of rough, sometimes politically incorrect and fast-burn-out reality shows--these days, give the network its due.

It's tough to side with big media companies that whine about regulations that they can't be allowed to sink their claws deeper into consumers' pockets....

Make it a longer than usual holiday weekend for syndication and cable executives....