Could Canoe Ventures have succeeded by focusing on using a "second screen" as the platform for its interactive advertising initiatives rather than the one that has dominated living rooms for decades? It's possible.

Networks have been eager to conduct research on cross-platform consumption of major sports events, be it ESPN for the World Cup or NBCUniversal for the Olympics. Turner has been no different with March Madness, which it now offers in partnership with CBS. Now, Turner is adding a regular cross-platform initiative tabbed "CNN Everywhere" while industry group CIMM is releasing two studies.

Analytics firms working in the social TV space continue to market their methods, each with a secret sauce. That proprietary mix can vary in terms of sources mined; breadth of terms picked up; length of time used in searching; and other factors. The results between research conducted by the likes of Bluefin Labs, General Sentiment and Trendrr can vary dramatically. Perhaps the only commonality among their methods is each not surprisingly relies on Twitter and Facebook.

Local TV stations have been trying to upgrade their Web sites to better compete with newspapers online. Yet, not many have moved as aggressively as the Louisville Fox affiliate did this week. WDRB hired the local paper's leading sports columnists away at once. As they move from the Courier-Journal, the plan is for Rick Bozich and Eric Crawford to each write several columns a week for WDRB.com, while turning their work into on-air pieces.

Henry Blodget has industry types talking with his TV-is-going-the-way-of-newspapers treatise this week. It's a lengthy piece on BusinessInsider.com, but the upshot put before industry oracle Irwin Gotlieb on Wednesday was on-demand viewing and DVRs will kill the underlying ad model. The argument from Blodget, the Business Insider Editor-in-Chief, is pretty unoriginal. It's a matter Gotlieb has been dealing with since probably the last days of the Clinton administration, if not before. Yet if Gotlieb, the chairman of GroupM, ever had doubts about what ad-zapping could do - he had to, right? - those now seem to be fading. Gotlieb hadn't …

Disney has set the agenda. When a company of its stature marks such a popular line in the sand in its advertising policies, it will be difficult for its competitors such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network not to follow.

Mergers and acquisitions can be a boon to networks, generating a flood of advertising to introduce the "new, stronger, better company ready to serve you." Networks missed out when AT&T failed to subsume T-Mobile, but could gain as Southwest Airlines melds AirTran into its operations.

In this month's Leaders & Bleeders, the History channel has remarkable success with the "Hatfields & McCoys," while cable news ratings are plummeting and, to borrow a line from Al Gore, the left hand may not know what the right one is doing at Fox News.

"Our partners." That's how network executives consistently refer to their advertisers and vice versa. Never mind that the two sides might be clashing right now on whether an ad should carry a 6.25% or 6.5% price bump next fall. Once the upfront market is done, bet on marketers - yes, the ones who spent heavily - saying something like: "Our partners helped us craft a campaign with social media and Super Bowl spots that drove phenomenal results." Unless it's Joel Ewanick. The General Motors CMO might get a cool reception from one side of the room if the annual "Buyer-Seller …

Broadcasters feel Aereo has the potential to be a "Diller Killer." For now, though, the potential threat doesn't have a single paying customer. In court testimony Wednesday, CEO Chet Kanojia said the company has between 3,300 and 3,500 subscribers. Yet, all are still within a 90-day trial period before the $12 monthly charges kick in (their credit cards are on file).