It's pre-upfront time and network executives are touting double-digit price increases. So what else is new? Speaking at a recent investor event, CBS Corp. President/CEO Les Moonves not only touted another round of big price hikes but said CBS would sell a bit more of its commercial inventory supply -- a little over 80% or so.

On a big TV viewing night, Oprah Winfrey looked to gain some visibility during ABC's Academy Awards telecast with a commercial promoting her OWN network and her show, "Oprah's Next Chapter." The ad -- most likely a local spot run in key markets -- was followed later in the show by a video segment of Oprah receiving one of the Academy's Governor's Awards. All this made sense. The Oscars are the so-called Super Bowl for Women, and ratings for key women viewers 18-49 rose a bit from a year earlier, with women 25-54 also continuing strong.

Walls are going up all around the media, particularly at newspapers and on social media. Will the construction of TV walls keep pace?

Dish Network would like to pile on to the media disruption by launching its own wireless broadband business -- which would be a welcome addition to Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. "We have a history of being very disruptive in the video business. I think we would be disruptive in the wireless business," said Charles Ergen, chairman of Dish Network.

Big Internet companies might now look at the cable industry and its mostly failed Canoe Ventures and say, "Not all that easy, is it?"

Checking In? Immediately, I think of making a phone call to one's family. But the newer definition addresses a bigger media world -- letting your friends (and family), perhaps some strangers, a TV network or so, and some marketers know what you are doing.

Big digital media companies may not think traditional TV has all the current right stuff - but they sure like the way TV gets to advertisers and its relatively quick and big media dollars. We speak of the upfront.

Network competitors might soon be partners, especially considering where Netflix and other digital TV/video services have gone. CBS doesn't believe Netflix is a competitor yet, because as President/CEO Les Moonves reminds us, Netflix still doesn't program 22 hours of "premium" evening programming a week. And Netflix? It believes it is in an "arms race" -- in which I'm guessing the more entertainment weapons you have, the better. HBO Go is in its sights as the most prominent entertainment enemy.

By looking at the numbers, few NBA general managers thought that previously unknown Harvard graduate Jeremy Lin would average well over 25 points a game and lead his New York Knicks to six straight victories -- five of them without the team's two big marquee stars. What can TV programmers learn from this? While we all know the value of media research, scheduling research, and the testing of TV shows, success means more than just looking at numbers.

Program packages costing consumers around $10 per month have been attracting TV business entrepreneurs. For example, Netflix basic streaming and Hulu Plus both cost $7.99 a month, and a number of local digital TV packages have been priced around $10. The trouble is that not everyone wants to pay the same freight to the program owners. Aereo, a New York City service backed by Barry Diller, is a new $12 alternative TV package looking to test the waters. This one -- in part -- tries to go where the likes of FilmOn and ivi TV went before: retransmitting over-the-air broadcast …