Decades ago, business executives might have worried that automation would replace them, that a machine or computer could handle their skills or their business. For some, that threat never completely surfaced. Yet we are still plagued with the vision of more machines coming our way.

Google is still the 500-pound gorilla in many areas of the digital media world. Its video platform YouTube still generates huge numbers of video users and time spent. But when it comes to critical new original TV programming, Google is still well behind other players.

Cable news channels spark a lot of debate about their opinionated -- or, some would say, biased -- commentaries. Al Jazeera America has now joined the fray. But even before it went on the air, there was talk of bias against the channel from advertisers and cable operators.

Viewers are always in a hurry, so they want their programming in shorthand. Take sports. While big-time live football, baseball and basketball drive sports-targeted networks, highlights are the bread-and-butter stuff that feeds viewers' appetites in between the high-profile live viewing.

Looking for TV viewers with a net worth of $1 million or an annual individual income of $200,000? Rich people still watch TV, I hear. But on really, really big TV screens -- like the size of your floor-to-ceiling living room wall.

The beautiful game is a beautiful business. The global popularity of soccer, or football, just seems to keep growing, and the opportunity for big money across the professional ranks seems infinite.

Would viewers pay specifically for the privilege of watching CBS? That's what Time Warner Cable recently asked when it made a very public offer to provide CBS a la carte. CBS' Les Moonves called the offer "grandstanding," and it certainly seemed just another shot fired in the current retransmission-fee war between the two entertainment megaliths. No self-respecting pay TV company would really come out in favor of a la carte programming at this time. But just by mentioning that French menu term, TWC was implicitly asking viewers to rate their loyalty to CBS as a brand.

As Time Warner Cable (TWC) and CBS trade barbs in their fee dispute, there's plenty of posturing to admire as each blames the other for the resulting blackouts. No surprise here, but sometimes the spin can conveniently gloss things over and seem misleading. There's a pretty good example of that on TWC's part in a recent filing with the FCC.

Filling in for TV Watch regular Wayne Friedman while he's on vacation today. Wayne and others have their own approaches to this column, but I always viewed it as news analysis piece summing up the TV industry story of the day. So whenever I fill in, I usually start the same way: I go to Google News and type in "television" -- and voila, my column is almost written for me. Nah, seriously, TV is a subject people love to talk about, and write about, so it's almost impossible to get a fresh angle on it. Unless you pull way, …

As CBS and Time Warner Cable hurl accusations at each other to win public support for their fee battle, who wins? It may keep lawyers and publicists happy and flush, but it's a pain for viewers.