I came across an interesting statistic the other day. And when I say "interesting," I don't mean it in the traditional, "I'm intrigued" sense, but rather in the "what is going on here?" sense. According to a study by the Association of National Advertisers, nearly two-thirds of client-side advertisers (63%) are planning branded entertainment strategies for 2012. But here's where things get a little funny. And by funny I mean strange, not "hah-hah." The study notes that while investment in branded entertainment has grown considerably since 2006, marketers haven't made much headway in measuring the return on their branded entertainment …

In my earlier article on exclusivity, I argued that we were about to enter a period of exclusivity in which distributors paid content creators for access to exclusive content for a limited time. Since the article, we have seen YouTube spend up to $250 million on exclusive content, and Netflix announce it would be bringing back "Arrested Development." Meanwhile, Australian ISP Internode is the latest distributor toying with offerings its viewers exclusive content. The practice is nothing new, but it begs the question: Does exclusive content matter?

f the recent gyrations of Netflix and Hulu demonstrate anything, it is that content still rules. We can talk about the new forms of services, devices and formats, but at the end of the day content dictates the business.

I enjoyed David Berkowitz' Who I'm Thankful For, so I decided to give that a spin and pen something on who the video industry should be thankful for. Some of it is tongue-in-cheek, but it's all sincere.

Be honest. How much do you really know about the video ads you buy? The term "pre-roll" frequently gets thrown around as a shorthand quality measure, but by definition it only describes a video ad's position relative to content. Do you know if that pre-roll you've bought is being shown above the fold, or whether it was auto-initiated?

I'm not sure when it happened, but some time when I wasn't paying attention, video on demand (VOD) emerged as a legitimate option for timeshifting. I'd been using VOD to watch the occasional pay-per-view movie when I was feeling flush, but given how much media attention is paid to the other timeshifting platforms, it didn't occur to me until very recently to tune to VOD for regular free TV. But where VOD comes up short is in the lack of a consistent go-to-market strategy.

Oh, how times change. Just a few months ago, Netflix was the darling of the media and investment community, adding subscribers at a torrid pace and being valued by Wall Street at over $12 billion.Then, Netflix did practically everything in its power to alienate consumers and investors alike, losing a million subscribers in the process and over two-thirds of its market cap. This past week, Netflix started the road to redemption and recovery by sending fans of "Arrested Development" into a frenzy by signing a deal to bring the show back.

Super cars, $50K chips in top casinos, amazing ocean, Cuban cigars, a chopper that takes you from the airport to the conference, Prince Albert, French cheese, amazing vibe in the air, and the crme de la drme of media executives spending three days together. Please allow me to introduce to you to the Monaco Media Forum.

As "content everywhere" business models continue to expand at a rapid pace, it becomes abundantly clear what the devices and platforms defining and driving TV and digital entertainment contents convergence are. With convergence, content providers and producers need to know and have survival skills to compete in "content everywhere" markets -- including what the revenue, brand and digital extensions mean to the bottom line.

Consumer usage of video is increasing at an astonishing rate. Cisco has estimated that video will increase from 30% of Internet traffic in 2010 to 90% by 2013. Online retailers are already using video, and service companies, manufacturing, and many others are also hopping on board. The scope of businesses that employ video and the different uses for video are expanding.