NBC's all-encompassing TAMI measurement -- which tries to put together all viewings of a single TV episode -- reveals a lot about TV. But the picture is still hazy.

Consider the dire predictions from Merrill Lynch media analyst Jessica Reif Cohen: There's a recession knocking on the door that will put media company stocks behind the eight ball for the next year and a half. That puts us into March 2010. Concerning the ad marketplace, it is worse. Cohen says to expect the advertising marketplace, including the TV advertising marketplace, to start recovering three to six months after that.

For local TV stations, it's not just about TV -- not if they want to grow in the future. But what's the long-term cost for their brands?

Two things consumers won't cut back on in these hard economic times: Hi-Def and hookers. Two surveys -- one a very formal one from the Consumer Electronics Association and another very informal one from the New York Daily News (guess which topic comes from which survey) -- show that consumers don't like to give up their favorite leisure activities, even if they can't pay their mortgages or buy food or gas.

With virtually unlimited campaign money, Barack Obama will make another big splash in using network television to get out the word. He's running two big half-hour programs days before the election. All this is like big-event movie marketing -- at lower prices.

The warning bells must be ringing at ABC -- and soon, perhaps at NBC. Can those long-term-looking TV ratings, which include seven day of DVR playback, save the day?

The old days of big TV advertising stories were about $100- million-or-more deals. With the advent of digital TV, such stories are rare these days -- very rare, to nonexistent. With the Internet and mobile TV platforms now on the loose -- also looking for their own PR spin -- media dollars come from a different perspective. In reality, it's no longer about dollars

NBC is turning off one of the most highly recognized multicast local digital networks, NBC Weather Plus. The network now says there isn't money to be made here. And so the four-year-old brand will go away, and 10 NBC-owned stations and 80 affiliates will be looking for other products to fill their local digital channels.

For the public good, both Time Warner Cable and Lin TV Corp. have told viewers where to go to get "CSI," NFL football games, or "Jeopardy" -- all as a consequence of their stalemated TV station carriage negotiations. In the end, maybe both companies are, in that merely telling viewers where to "go."

Seventy million people watched the vice presidential debate last Thursday. The effect on the election? "Zero," said John Harwood of The New York Times on MSNBC on Friday.