Some associations between social media and TV are fleeting -- or worse. They could exist just to solve "business" problems while not attending to real consumer needs. Do we really need frequent flyer/incentive points for watching or talking about TV shows? That doesn't sounds like a way to connect with TV, but a way to get other stuff. Maybe that's what marketers want.

Facebook's first-ever TV commercial doesn't mention the social media platform's big scale. Perhaps it should. If you want to tout your service as the glue that holds us together, there's a number to consider: 1 billion, which is how many worldwide users Facebook recently hit. Still, with 1 billion users there isn't much you can tell consumers about what Facebook essentially does. So what's your message? Furniture.

Let's face it. Today's cable TV and satellite companies aren't really focused on advertising sales. The vast majority of their business revenues continues to come from monthly subscribers' fees.

Nearing the end of 2012, we are hearing and seeing more about the blurring of fact and fiction in the media,. First, there was the supposed 90-minute TV drama of the presidential debate. Yes, in this TV show we look to separate fact from fiction from reality from history -- and everything else in between. But maybe we are looking for something else. Style, perhaps.

We were watching a time-shifted episode of TNT's "Major Crimes" the other night. A commercial break popped up and my wife quickly hit the fast-forward button because -- what can I say -- that is our "consumer behavior." Adjust accordingly.

Help a TV brand out -- or any brand, for that matter. That's what we customers want to do, apparently, according to a new survey. Eight out of ten Internet users actually want to tell marketers ways to make better products and services. I'm guessing this pertains to TV shows, as well.

Naming Seth MacFarlane the host of ABC's "The 85th Academy Awards" next February seems on the surface to be a bold and smart move. The guy can sing, act, and, oh yeah, write and produce blisteringly sarcastic stuff. I'm talking about "Family Guy," of course. But wait a second. If you think MacFarlane will glom his "Family Guy" attitude onto the hallowed big movie event, you'd be wrong.

Many of the NFL's actions over the past several weeks may come down to one observation by TV media buyers: The cost per thousand viewers of sports TV, or CPMs, will grow.

Future over-the-top TV services will need a new marketing campaign: Something along the lines of, "All the TV you really want; cheap, but not like cable or satellite." Trouble is, that sounds like a quick rainstorm will put you into TV-snow land.

Looking for that tender, learn-a-lesson-moment from TV? Don't go to Chevy Chase for recommendations -- especially about one of the most durable of TV forms, the sitcom. Sitcoms, says NBC's "Community" actor, are the lowest form of TV. (He didn't say what the highest form is.) I say, "Why stop there. How about calling sitcoms the lowest form of entertainment, period?"