Surrounded by oxygen tanks, nurses, and homemade frozen Ensure popsicles, my father-in-law lies in bed these days. Before, though, when the pulmonary fibrosis was just an annoyance, he used to sit, along with his wife, in the living room, watching FOX News -- like Archie and Edith, but she in the better chair....

Michael Phelps is getting all the buzz. But quite simply, it's Jason Lezak who may have saved the Olympic Games for NBC. Not just over the next week, but for another decade to come.

After decades of networks paying affiliates to run their programming, networks now want a completely opposite equation, one where stations send checks to networks. Station executives are up in arms. But before they get too crazy, I'd go one step further: base that new financial equation on performance.

The Green Bay CBS affiliate, WFRV-TV, is taking a bunch of New York Jets games this fall - all because their beloved Brett Favre is playing in another green uniform. It's hard to let go, and considering how strong the Fox affiliate must be in airing the Green Bay Packers games, there's little downside. Except.... What happens when the 7-8 Jets are playing, say, the 2-13 Dolphins in week 17, and the station could have been airing a stronger match -- say, between New England Patriots-Buffalo Bills or Tennessee Titans-Indianapolis Colts -- that day?

How did both Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain buy seemingly high-priced Beijing Olympics commercials on NBC at such under-market rates?

An edgy dance beat; lots of cool clips and snappy dialogue from upcoming fall shows; and a seemingly obvious marketing line. What do you have? A network brand campaign, of course. Fox calls this one "So Fox."

You can almost hear beer marketing executives gulping -- or spraying out some beer foam. NCAA College sports coaches, and some college presidents, think beer and other alcohol advertising on TV networks sets a bad example Their message to NCCA official: Stop beer and alcohol-related TV advertising during NCAA sporting events.

News flash: People who aren't married are having sex on broadcast television programs. News flash: Broadcast TV ratings are down. Conclusion: TV viewers think sex outside marriage is boring.

In the next several months, starting in a few days with the Summer Olympics, and extending until November and December, local TV stations will be entering a crucial advertising sales period -- one that will also reveal a hazy picture of what 2009 might look like.

Who needs small TV stations? Not cable companies, apparently. Cable carriage cost money, and they'd rather stick with the big guys -- and, in a new world order, one where a TV outlet has some ratings.