This is not a local story. And it is about more than zeroes and ones. When Digital Hollywood founder Victor Harwood first spun the idea out of the recesses of his highly wired and inventive brain a decade ago, the world of television and computers were worlds apart. The Internet was something universities communicated through and the hot media money was on CD-ROMs and cable and satellite delivery systems. TCI's cable monarch John Malone was ridiculed back then for suggesting that his systems would eventually deploy 500 channels.
Technology marches on.
Fifty blocks north of Digital Hollywood, the old media was putting on a show of its own. What these advertisers spend will determine how much the networks spend and thus how much they will make. The network sales spiels have been turned into shows, not merely showcases. It's about commercials, not programs. They would also find out how much money is spent commissioning pilots for shows that end up getting canceled, sometimes before they even air.