Free local sports programming may not be around much longer. The blackout rules for TV stations were originally put in place to protect sports teams from the vagaries of being unable to sell out local stadiums. The rules forced rabid sports fans to pay big dollars to see teams in person. The FCC no longer wants to oversee such rules. So the marketplace may rule instead.

Court decision after court decision keeps going the way of Aereo, the renegade Internet-delivered service offering over-the-air TV stations to consumers at nominal cost. Think of your favorite nervous broadcaster.

Good news: more media usage is on the way. Consumers will have more time to access TV shows and other video content now that the Federal Aviation Agency will allow air travelers to use their tablets before planes take off and after they land.

An anonymous NBA general manager, quoted in ESPN The Magazine, plans to lose a lot of games this year in pursuit of the top pick in the next NBA draft. It's a key strategy, but even losing every game wouldn't be enough. All non-playoff teams participate in a lottery to grab the most highly desired college players. Just wondering if TV networks and programmers shouldn't act similarly. But it wouldn't be about getting the best college pick to write the next big drama or sitcom. Instead, the reference points would be about examining failure, learning lessons, and coming out the …

It wasn't that long ago that USA Network's "White Collar" characters could be seen pitching viewers the Ford Focus -- both with in-show product placements and specific separate vignettes featuring the characters touting the car.More than one TV critic might have mused that the art expert/con man Neal Caffrey (played by Matt Bomer), with his taste for the finer things, might have been moved to drive a more upscale automobile - say, an import. Lo and behold, we have this season and...BMW!

Can you name your favorite stodgy media platform or business? For Netflix, it's movie theater owners - the entertainment distribution business that doesn't want day-and-date movies to make their way to TV screens in any form. Ted Sarandos, chief content officer of Netflix, said recently that this current theatrical releasing model is "antiquated."

What if traditional TV commercials were seen not by human beings but by machines? In the online digital video world, machines can "see" commercials - which doesn't help "human-being" viewer engagement and "real people" purchasing.

The beta test for U.S. a la carte programming has begun -- in Canada. That country's law of the land will require operators to offer a la carte programming to consumers who demand it.

With more public information available on everyone and everything, some believe journalism should follow the change. It's not a case of following the money, but more of following and analyzing "big data."

Listen up, TV set manufacturers: Make all the 4K equipment you want, both for industry and consumers, but networks and content providers might not buy in -- especially considering the financial results from the last big TV technology changes. "We spent millions going to HD, and never got an extra dime from advertisers," Fox Sports field operations executive Jerry Steinberg noted at this week's conference of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). "It seems today [4K broadcasting] is a monumental task with not a lot of return."