What programming makes sense for a cable network brand? You never really know. OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network will now try daytime soap operas. For more than two decades, Oprah Winfrey's syndicated show competed -- and worked alongside -- stations airing network soap operas. Now two reviving soaps --- "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" -- will get some rerun action on OWN after their original airplays online.

Hershey, the candy company, wound up being a big part of the final episode of season six of AMC's "Mad Men," but probably not with the association it usually seeks. The association wasn't Hershey's decision, but that of "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner.

Using social media to promote TV shows to potential new viewers may not be a great idea. If you've never watched "NCIS" or "Breaking Bad," for instance, the tendency probably isn't to run to a social media site to see what they're all about. That would be too "inside baseball." Instead, you might need a broader perspective -- like a little sight, sound, and motion.

Emmy marketing is coming fast and furious these days. Everything, it seems, can get a crack at some nominations, if not awards. What's the value of those honors these days?

Now that the NBA Finals -- one of TV's biggest sporting events -- have ended, networks can again count all the money they get out of big major sports franchises. But a lawsuit by a group of former NCAA athletes has the potential to change the formula.

Fox has a point when it comes to indecency issues and the FCC: It's a hodgepodge. But more to the point, considering what has been going on in other media, the FCC's narrow focus on just TV seems foolish. You want change? Give the FCC even more authority -- or none at all. But none of this in-between stuff.

Public confidence in traditional sources of news and information -- newspapers and TV news shows -- is at an all-time low. All this while there is more access to news content than ever before.

Your Web series just got upgraded to a full, TV-length-episode series. A nice sign you are growing up, for sure. The Julia Stiles-starring YouTube series "Blue" just got that good news. It is now moving to Hulu, the more mainstream venue for live streaming video.

It's back to old-school marketing for CBS: Virtually all its fall shows will premiere in a one-week period starting right after its Emmy awards show on Sunday, Sept. 22. Actually, the eye network has done this in other recent years, while its broadcast competitors have mostly spread out their show launches due to too much "noise" clashing around the marketing of new TV content.

More than last season, this was the year Fox's "American Idol" came down off its high perch as television's big program. Now, what do we have? A more even playing field -- with a bunch of good-, but not great-rated, shows.