CBS is among the networks talking big scatter percentage increases in CPMs -- positive spikes of 20% to 30% over the upfront. But there's still a bigger question: Where's the "visibility"? (That's what some call actual and significant ad revenues gains.)

New fancy TV/video digital providers beware: Not all content providers are interested in your new platform -- especially if you can't verify your audience through research.

Tiger Woods won't be taking any questions after his live "public statement" on Friday. No problem. I only have two small ones: Have you played any golf lately -- and when do you think you'll play again, giving TV golf marketers all those big rating points?

You can't see all of your precious Olympic sporting events live on NBC, even though the Olympics are in North-American-friendly time zones. The men's downhill skiing event is an important piece of any Winter Olympics -- but it didn't run live. NBC ran it delayed in prime time. NBC saves its best stuff for prime time -- some live, some not -- and then parcels out events over a three- or five-hour period like crumbs for pigeons. We're the pigeons -- and we continue to follow the trail.

In Japan, Toyota's chairman recently took a bow of contrition for the growing problems of his company's cars. Maybe media executives should do the same. Now a major network research executive says some big-name forecasters should also apologize -- or at least rethink their estimates.

What's happening to DVR growth? It's been growing at a slow-ish 5% clip per year, hovering around the 30%-of-U.S.-households mark for some time, according to analysts. Not bad. But not at the fast-paced, euphoric rate of consumer electronic products like mobile phones or DVD machines in past years.

The future of TV will still be familiar -- more so than you think. Even an Internet advertising pioneer thinks so. Speaking at the Borrell Associates Local Online Advertising Conference, Dave Morgan said, "After 19 years in online media, I got into television. Not interactive TV. I mean linear TV as it is delivered today." Linear TV! That television reference means a straight line -- to somewhere. We know one straight fact right now: There are some 70% of U.S households that still view TV this way.

The big three American automakers have had some bad news about their survivability over the past year or so. But, while they bought fewer TV ads overall, that was purely an economic decision. It didn't seem to be a way for them to take out their frustrations with the editorial side of news operations by punishing the business side and decreasing ad spend. Now one ABC News report suggests that some Toyota dealerships are doing just that.

David Letterman appeared in a promo during the Super Bowl with Oprah Winfrey and Jay Leno. Question: What was this promo for -- and who gets the real marketing value? This might have been confusing for some concerned executives, especially since Jay Leno is due to return to "The Tonight Show" on NBC next month, again in direct competition with CBS' "Late Show."

If it's MTV's "Jersey Shore," or a foul-mouthed rock star presenter at an awards show, or a loud, raw-language-speaking pundit on a news, sports, or music variety program, viewers can be tweaked to watch. Yet a week ago CBS's Grammy Awards didn't have any controversial moments, and the show's ratings soared 35%, to their highest level in six years.