How much is too much product placement? It isn't in the total number of occurrences that Nielsen Media Research says grew by 30 percent in 2005. One needs to look at product placement on a per-show basis.

Everyone is human, with nagging human problems--even drink-swilling, pill-popping pastors and clerics. That's the message of "The Book of Daniel," NBC's controversial new TV series--but not everybody sees it that way. The American Family Association believes the show is not about the foibles of humanity but rather about anti-Christian bigotry.

Find ways to use TV research to tout your program quality, if not your dominance, and you might get better advertising sales results--and perhaps a little confusion, as well.

Major changes in the TV business landscape took place in the later part of 2005--but not all were obvious. While major video-on-demand deals moved to the foreground, branded entertainment and product placement business stories shifted into the background.