Facebook would seem to be a helpful customer-service tool for cable and other pay-TV providers. How better to quickly respond to frustration about service disruptions or answer questions about when a particular channel might be carried?

Is the C3 vs. C7 debate worthy of the attention it will continue to receive until a settlement is reached? Yes. Anytime, the national TV market could undergo a currency switch, it merits vast interest. Not just in the financial impact, but in the philosophy (i.e. what does it say about consumer behavior?). Buyers and sellers will have to sort it out. But there is a compromise to be had.

Editor's Note: In this guest commentary, a top Boston station executive recounts events from last week in the wake of the Marathon tragedy, while offering an endorsement of local broadcasting's role in a time of crisis.

There's no doubt that TV and social media have become hot companions. In fact, there's a whole sub-category of media hype that's been coined to describe it: "Second screens." Needless to say, TV has been the first screen, while PCs, tablets and handhelds are all deemed, well, No. 2. Now, Madison Square Garden Co.'s Fuse network wants to flip the model, launching what it claims is the first TV shows inspired by social media content vs. the other way around. The new show, dubbed "Trending 10," not surprisingly, is being done in collaboration with Twitter, and will be produced based …

Beta Research released compelling research Wednesday showing various consumer preferences among cable networks. Most interesting, though, is the clue the data offered as to which networks might succeed most on TV Everywhere platforms.

Neuroscience sure seems a lot more effective than online surveys and focus groups. At least on paper, evaluating brain activity seems a more straightforward path to gaining insight into marketing effectiveness than 15 people sitting around a table, where they may be afraid to be completely honest. The brain doesn't lie, right?

Wasn't one supposed to kill the other? Annual TV ad spending is closing in on the $80 million mark, while DVRs could soon be in 50% of U.S. homes by the start of the new TV season. In an annual report, Nielsen estimates 46% of homes have a DVR, marking a 9% increase over the prior TV season. Meanwhile, the research firm says the U.S. TV market generated $76.5 million in spending in 2012, a 6.5% increase.

Advertisers might say negotiations with the Comedy Central sales team can leave them nearly stripped, so to speak. So would the network really invite clients to post photos of themselves that way on the Internet? Speaking about launch plans for the upcoming "Inside Amy Schumer," Comedy Central's marketing chief Walter Levitt says network might look to "nudify" advertisers.

TVB, the trade group representing local stations, offered up all kinds of data Thursday that at its core was an effort to forestall commercial ratings ever being used as the currency in local markets. Some of the smartest media mathematicians - the types that can zip through equations with a VPVH and PUTs - might find it difficult to sort through.

Bruce Lefkowitz pretty much declared war last month. At an upfront event, he introduced a new FX Now platform, where viewers won't be able to blitz through spots. "The strategy we've developed is one designed to obviate DVR usage," said Lefkowitz, FX's sales chief.