Two interesting news bits in the age of declining TV ad sales

People are watching less and less advertising and everyone in the TV industry is scrambling to figure out what comes next. Two news items this morning offered some hope.

One is that Warner Brothers is offering online streaming of their sitcom reruns to their affiliate stations. This is a big move as other networks have chosen to sell or stream shows directly to viewers, bypassing the local stations. Also, it's great to see networks offer fans ways to view older episodes they might have missed, which until now could usually be found online from less-than-legal avenues like bittorrent and usenet.

The other interesting tidbit is that TiVo is offering long-form commercials on demand. It sounds like an expanded version of what they've had before (I loved the BMW short movies they played years ago) and from the descriptions in the Wall Street Journal, I'd actually opt-in and want to see most of those (I'm a car nut and love Penn and Teller).