The Internet is too "open" for its own good sometimes. Now some video content providers want to give users the option of skipping TV-like commercial messages. Actually, that's one big video content provider: YouTube.

Time Warner's Jeff Bewkes can feel pretty good about not buying a big broadcast network like NBC. But there's more to this big broadcast TV story. "The broadcast networks have fewer people watching, for shorter times of day, lower and declining ratings... So therefore their business model is becoming increasingly not viable," he says. "If you look at broadcast networks, which are the only ones in TV that have 'free' aspect, if they don't get some form of carriage fee, they may not survive."

An expanding array of media and entertainment choices should mean lower prices for consumers, though some TV networks and cable operators might have you think otherwise. But if you are the DVD market, the laws of supply and demand still work

Oprah Winfrey leaving her roots among TV stations could be the last move in a quick triple play gone wrong for the industry.

Just when TV stations have been salivating over what comes with growing retransmission revenues, the broadcast networks could be saying: "Wait a minute -- what about the cost of our programming?"

For weeks, Comcast's message has been clear: It wants TV content to match its distribution. But its real interest seemed to be those media assets that don't have NBC's brand attached.

"Why license all that content to something that works that well, that seamlessly, yet without the economic model around it?" The subject is Hulu. The opinion is from outgoing CBS Interactive chief Quincy Smith.

Watching live sports these days has become a little too predictable, taking me along the same emotional path. Years ago, I started removing my emotional ties, protecting myself from the whipsaw of incredible joy followed by insufferable destruction. (John Starks, 1994!) Now I force myself to switch to the analytical part of the game -- especially at key moments. Athletes make a lot of money, I think, and will switch allegiances to another team next year. Don't jump on board. But one thing could save me: more revealing effort, work, and intensity. I'm not necessarily talking about ECUs. or extreme …