Chris Squire, co-founder/bassist of U.K.-based British rock band Yes, didn't make many TV appearances in the U.S -- especially recently. Part of this was because he grabbed fame and fortune in the early and mid-1970s. But he might get his day soon posthumously. Squire passed away recently from a rare form of cancer.

It wasn't that long ago -- probably the last decade -- that we all thought short-form, user-generated videos would be the norm, replacing all that boring TV stuff -- dramas, comedies, reality shows. YouTube was going to be the bearer of this honor. Turns out that even millennials -- who continue to switch to digital TV platforms from traditional media channels -- are still watching long-form videos, perhaps more so. You know, that stuff on those lower-numbered channels that come in around 30 or 60 minutes in length.

Whatever you might think about where Twitter and Facebook are headed, they're definitely gaining in news content consumption. A 2015 study from Pew Research Center says 63% of those surveyed use Twitter to get news (separate, of course, from content about family and friends). That's 11 percentage points up from the 52% who did so two years ago. Meanwhile, traditional TV news sources on three commercial broadcast networks saw good results in 2014. Evening newscast viewership grew slightly for the second year in a row, while morning newscasts saw a 2% growth in average. This followed a 7% increase in …

TV networks would love for business reporters to stop writing about TV ratings -- especially stories that only look at next-day ratings. Networks all want media executives to consider viewership totals that include not just one overnight airing -- but three, seven, 30 days, as well as digital and SVOD airings. All that can get -- what else? -- a bigger number. But I'll go them one better. We should speak to a metric everyone can understand: dollars and cents.

Deep into the summer doldrums, my wife says there's nothing on "television" right now. She means on the broadcast networks. "What about cable" I ask. "Or Netflix? Some TV shows you may have missed?" She's not interested. Hulu? Nope, nothing she really wants to watch. She opts for a "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" rerun. All this may sound strange when headlines always talk about the "golden age" of TV, with seemingly scores of quality entertainment on many different platforms. But the problems run deeper.

Under-the-radar TV networks looking for damaged programming goods to hopefully sell to advertisers? Reelz Channel, a cable/satellite/telco network of 67 million subscribers, headed in this direction when it decided to pick up the 2015 Miss USA Pageant, which had had Donald Trump as a minority owner.

vent organizers of the Comic-Con event in San Diego were concerned about "live streaming" of their celebrity panels -- and they issued warnings beforehand. No matter. Consumers were streaming event content -- using the likes of Periscope as well as other live-streaming platforms.

No matter what you thought about him, Keith Olbermann gave an edge to all the places he worked: ESPN, MSNBC, or Current TV. But is that enough this days -- when seemingly every on-air sports and news commentator/host seemingly walks this tightrope? These thoughts come to the surface as ESPN now says it is ending Olbermann's current two-year run, which started in August 2013.

Discovery Communications was a star performer on Tuesday among publicly traded media companies, rising over 2% to $33.80 a share -- while other major media companies posted virtually unchanged results. Nomura Securities analyst Anthony DiClemente, praising the work senior executive Rich Ross has done on programming improvements at many of Discovery Communications' networks, raised Discovery's price target to $34 from $33.

Figure that future TV upfronts will only become less clear, more muddy, with more apples-to-oranges comparisons. Now two major media groups -- NBCUniversal and now Fox Networks, both of which have broadcast and cable networks -- are pushing to sell all TV networks, broadcast and cable, in combined media deals -- at least as much as possible.