Last November, it was reported that Yahoo was considering a TV Guide bid, but the bid was said to be around $20 million. Seriously? Yahoo has $4 billion in cash. Why the low offer? TV Guide is currently available in more than 80 million homes. And just to compare the numbers, Al Jazeera purchased Al Gore's Current TV for $500 million, increasing its household reach by 60 million. Current TV doesn't even have close to the same brand recognition as TV Guide. I think Yahoo missed a huge opportunity to stake its claim in video and offer more content to …

Ten years after his death in 2003, Fred Rogers -- aka Mister Rogers -- is back in the news. First, his quote about how his mother told him "always look for the helpers" in the face of tragedy went viral in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing. Now, Deadline Hollywood reports that a full-length biopic on Rogers is in development. What is it about Rogers and the earnestness of his life and career that keeps him relevant?

To me, everywhere you look, content is consuming us, as we consume it. In fact, I used to hate the term "content consumption," but I no longer fight it. It's a fact. But therein lies the problem and opportunity: while marketers embrace new targeting via audience or data, they continue to hold out for premium -- let alone quality -- content.

"I think I just passed by Sarah Jessica Parker, and btw I'm much taller than her," I immediately texted my lady as I was walking into AOL's annual Newfront presentation.

Advertisers, take note: Consumers are getting savvier at connecting their TVs to the Internet, and interacting with TV shows on mobile devices in new ways. Market research firm TDG reported that nearly 6 in 10 homes in the United States have connected their TVs to the Internet, either via a smart TV or through game consoles and Blu-ray players. And in many cases, TV viewers are watching subscription VOD services on these connected TVs.

Web video presents a huge opportunity for brands, but it has its share of challenges, particularly in ensuring quality content and unimpeded delivery. When viewers encounter a rebuffer (the spinning wheel that appears when a video is loading), they click away 81.2% of the time, according to TubeMogul. This is not a minor technical issue. Ensuring high-quality video for an enjoyable user experience is the cornerstone to effectively reaching customers online.

If brand-conscious Martians landed on planet earth and wanted to market themselves, and we offered them the following two choices, which do you think they would choose? - Option #1: A large heterogeneous audience that may or may not be paying attention, measured with analog tools that take some time to report. - Option #2: A large homogeneous audience that is demonstrably paying attention, measured with precision, in real time. The obvious answer for most would be #2. And eventually, traditional media companies won't survive if they assume that advertisers will continue to prefer #1.

Recently, Alloy acquired DBG, while Dreamworks acquired Awesomeness TV. Terms of the Alloy/DBG deal were not disclosed. Dreamworks paid $33 million for AwesomenessTV, with earnouts pushing the deal up to a deal size of $123 million.

I've long held that the barrier to T/V (Television/Video) advertisers getting ads seen is not consumer ad avoidance, but rather interruption avoidance. HitBliss, a new service in private beta trial right now, has addressed this problem by giving the media consumer a way to avoid interruption but not advertising (a la iTunes) or watching ads of their choice in a time of their choosing.

I predict the video industry will be awash in predictions. No, it's not because I have an awesome crystal ball. It's because once an industry amasses enough data, then predictions are a natural outgrowth. But predictions also represent a logical desire to understand a market. This week the online video business is focused on the Digital Content NewFronts, run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which reported that original professional online video captures the attention of 45 million U.S. viewers per month.