Mobile is without a doubt the coolest kid at the party right now. For one, the growth of smartphones is massive. Engagement is another huge factor. A recent study by Nielsen found that 30 million Americans watched TV content via their mobile phones in 2011, and there are now billions of mobile video ad impressions available each month. With this type of growth in mobile video usage and ad inventory availability, advertisers are understandably under pressure to reach mobile users via video. However, the sheer variety of device types, operating systems, and apps can be overwhelming for some advertisers and …

Ultimately, the challenge boils down to a) producing content that viewers care about; and b) ensuring that distributors will care enough to feature it. Generally speaking, considering that marketers have sales or branding objectives, branded entertainment tends to morph into a disappointment at best and a failure at worst.

Social media is the drug addiction of the new millennium. It's done at home, in the workplace, in private, with strangers, and out in the open with friends. Just look around on any given day and observe how many people are mentally, physically, metaphorically and literally hooked on their mobile devices and laptops. They're running around all hopped up on Facebook, email, Twitter, videos, social apps, YouTube, games and anything else that connects one person to some software and then back to other people.

This year's second season finale of "Downton Abbey" on PBS gave the network its largest audience in years, and upped its "Masterpiece Theatre" brand 18-34 female demographic by a staggering 251%. What a coup in this era of segmentation -- where so many outlets are competing for everyone's very limited time. And from a digital standpoint, I'm happy to say that I take back much of what I wrote back in 2010 in one of my first blog posts about PBS' stalled digital strategy.

When the New England Patriots kicked off to the New York Giants for Super Bowl 46, 111.3 million people were watching the game on television sets around the world. And this year the NFL, one of the most successful sports -- and yes, media -- brands in the world, debuted the broadcast on more than just television screens. For the first time ever, the Super Bowl was streamed live via the Internet. The NFL -- like many video content providers -- is adopting a multiplatform, multi-device strategy for delivering its valuable content.

You always hear how online video is in the "early innings." Perhaps, but tell that to anyone who's worked in online video for years, and they'll roll their eyes, saying the industry's been around forever, and sometimes it feels like we're in the dog days of August. But today, we'll look at the history of online video as if it were a baseball game.

As a subscriber to the print version of the New York Times, I saw an ad on Super Bowl Sunday with the visual of two TV sets side by side, each tuned to an american football game, with one titled "$1.2 Billion," and the other "Free." The headline stated "It's The Same Game. Why The Big Price Difference?" It was signed by the American Television Alliance, an organization that I wasn't familiar with, whose sub-heading states "A Voice for the TV Viewer." As excited as I was to see possible advocacy for TV viewers, I was also confused. I wondered …