John Dvorak makes some points on advertising's problems - mass market advertising isn't contextual, and an increasingly large share of the market is able to avoid it now. No one has ever really like mass advertising - it's just that now, we have options:

The advertisers should have gotten a clue when, almost out of the blue, full-season episode lineups of TV shows began to sell on DVD. You could watch without commercials. People would actually pay to avoid these commercials. Hello! Do you think you have a problem yet?

I went to the theater the other day to see the trendy film Serenity (I prefer watching movies at home on an HD projector) and had to endure about 20 minutes of solid commercials before it began. So now I pay money to watch commercials? It's offensive.

Friends of ours just started watching "Smallville" - by buying the season DVD's. They avoid ads, and they catch up quickly. I only started watching "Buffy" during season 5 - I caught up via the FX repeats captured on my ReplayTV, without the commercials.

The problem is, where does that leave the mainstream TV industry? Right now, they build shows one step removed from the actual audience - they target the advertisers. However, with the ability to dodge ads on the rise, that model is doomed. I rather suspect that over the air TV (with ads) is doomed - but I don't see targeted ads being the answer. Instead, I think we'll see subscription TV. Me? If I knew I was going to see content from Joss Whedon, for instance, I'd sign up.