If Hulu had designs on building an original content business, its first foray doesn't augur much success. The first two episodes of "A Day in the Life," where documentarian Morgan Spurlock follows personalities for a 24-hour period, offers little more than extended promotional videos for his subjects.

The trade groups for both local broadcasters and wireless carriers are trying to persuade the FCC and Congress to take their side in the debate over what to do with America's broadcast spectrum. Disturbingly, they didn't let this week's earthquake go to waste, each using it to try and gain an advantage with the feds.

The latest aspect of Goldman Sachs' image-boosting campaign touts its involvement in helping the New York Yankees get the YES Network off the ground. The centerpiece is a splendidly produced short online film.

New research shows the potential value of Facebook and Twitter for network marketers in reaching millennials to promote shows for the new season. Some of it is intuitive, but validation doesn't hurt.

Just as it did during the Egyptian uprising earlier this year, once again Al Jazeera's English version provided gripping, stellar coverage over the weekend as a revolution was on the march in Libya. Its correspondents seemed to always be a step ahead, notably in broadcasting from the Green Square in Tripoli as the rebel forces took over, while showed showing the massive, scary structure erected there to display an image of Colonel Qaddafi that would be coming down.

Remember that populist, rabble-rouser Glenn Beck. He used to have a highly rated show on Fox News. Then, he left with plans to launch some sort of Internet network, even saying he was going to charge people for it. Who pays for content on the Web, short of Netflix or MLB.com? Beck might be on to something. Traffic on GlennBeck.com was up notably last month, suggesting his GBTV could do well. Take that, liberals.

It was quite simply the kind of press release ad sales executives love, the type that get forwarded from in-box to in-box rapidly. Toyota, hurt by the Japanese tragedies earlier this year, which slowed ad spending at least in local TV, indicated Thursday it's ready to spend liberally again. But, its shares were trading down 4.5% amid another rugged day on Wall Street. Other large advertisers such as Ford (7%) and Macy's (7%) fell notably, too. Yet, networks have nothing to worry about until at least New Year's.

Dr. Lennert Veerman, a senior research fellow at Australia's University of Queensland, is behind a report with startling conclusions -- dramatic enough to make a network executive quit and go work for a non-profit. His thrust is that shows such as "Jersey Shore" and "Big Brother" are so vapid and mindless that they can negatively affect life expectancy. Not really.

Arbitron's efforts to use its Portable People Meters (PPMs) for cross-media measurement may have picked up some steam as it released results from a 2010 test conducted with station owner Entravision in Denver. A principal conclusion: an advertiser using radio and TV together for a campaign can gain a notable unduplicated audience and a chance to extend reach.

As the debate heats up about paying college athletes, does it trickle down to high schools? ESPN is set to begin its fall h.s. football schedule next week with a three-day blast that has 26 schools playing on three networks and streamed online. Somebody's making money. Also, truTV has a coming reality series about the California DMV. Network chief Marc Juris stated it "promises to be a fast-paced, fun series," while becoming the first person in history to use the term "fast-paced" when describing the DMV.