The market should have focused on the downward revision of Q3 GDP to 2.2%. When the benefits of "cash for clunkers" is taken out, the economy barely grew at all.

Stocks ended up being driven by good housing sales figures which were up 7.4% for November and equities were up for a third consecutive day. The market's movement between now and the end of the year will probably be driven by retail sales numbers, but there were few of those today.

The unofficial closing numbers:

Dow 10,464.93 +50.79 (0.49%)
S&P 500 1,118.02 +3.97 (0.36%)
Nasdaq 2,252.67 +15.01 (0.67%)

The television, whether we like it or not, will continue to evolve into a delivery mechanism for more than just an antenna, cable connection, or satellite television. Yes, many of us have all the game consoles and even internet connections strung to those flat-screen televisions. In five years or so, that cable connection could be replaced by a WiFi antenna and your flat-panel could be a internet monitor more than anything.

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) wants to make that happen sooner rather than later. It wants Flash -- the near-universal video and audio platform for the internet -- to become the standard on many sections of the home entertainment category. This includes televisions, DVD players, and game consoles.

The rules of engagement within the television broadcasting industry are changing -- everyone knows this. But the trusted guard of influential and mind-shaping TV is ill-equipped (as always) to change at the breakneck pace it needs to and therefore new, disruptive industries swing by for a chat and end up making up new rules. Case in point: Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) YouTube.

While YouTube is not a replacement for television at this time (lower quality, internet connection needed, etc.), it is becoming increasingly so for some people. As that list grows steadily but surely, the big studios -- like the music and newspaper industries before them -- will learn to compete or face the defection of ad clients and audiences to newer online media that don't have such a tightfisted control over content. Consumers demand more -- and they are getting it here in the infancy of internet TV.

Will studios like Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA) and General Electric Co.'s (NYSE:GE) NBC use backhanded tactics to get their respective programming on YouTube? Sure they would, as a last-second desperate tactic. The largest video portal in the world is YouTube, not Viacom or NBC; but like I said earlier, YouTube needs to step up things quite a bit to achieve the quality and accessibility freely available analog networks now have (until 2009 when digital TV will be mandatory).

Once that internet connection in all those homes, apartments, condos and other living structures is as common as running water, the age of internet TV will have really arrived. If traditional studios think they have it bad now, it's not even close. So, to all network television execs -- better start ponying up for those partnerships unless you want to explain to your largest advertisers the audience shift out of your properties and onto ... YouTube. Next up -- the Apple TV's capability to change the game, in traditional Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) style.

Although Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is about to release its AppleTV product that it hopes will bridge the divide among the PC and the living room entertainment center, how far has the consumer electronics world come in this arena?

There have been numerous attempts to actually make the TV and PC one device -- or at least a nice ecosystem -- but have any caught on with consumers? Not a one, although there are arguments that some devices have made "inroads."

I say, to where? Only one person I know of has a complete bridge between his TV and home entertainment system and the content of his PC as well as a live pipe to the Internet from the television/main living room.

Michael Eisner hasn't been up to much since his departure from Disney.

It looks though, like Eisner is eyeing the Online Video space.  With broadband becoming more and more prevalent in US homes, the technological infrastructure/capability for streaming videos is reaching fruition.  With American Idol and the plethora of reality t.v. shows abounding, there is a discernible trend towards amateur/'real' videos and the corresponding stars and starlets.

The space is still being defined, but already net giant Google and Yahoo are getting positioned with video versions of their respective search engines. 

Google Video is a portal type page which is hoping to bridge the gap between amateur and licensed videos and programming. 

YouTube though is arguably the most successful player in this space, pulling in 9 million users a month (according to Nielson/NetRatings)

Eisner will also sit on the board of directors for Veoh.  The online network space is a very interesting one and one to keep an eye on. 

For Time Warner the natural motives would be to incorporate Veoh or a module/shell into its AOL portal.  The distribution aspect is also huge as Time Warner's video content is tremendous (ie. Warner Brothers).