While there are many areas of media that are going through changes, 2008 will be a particularly interesting year for the television industry. With YouTube already a household name, even the most notoriously defensive media giants have come to realize that online video is more than just an afterthought, in fact, it might just be the key to the new media castle.

On the last day of 2007, the FCC released a 108 page order detailing its rules for the final stages of the transition of US full power television stations from analog to digital, a transition that is to be completed in less than 14 months. The Third Periodic Review, as the order is titled, covers in detail the timing of required construction of the final facilities for each full power television station, as well as various details on other transition issues. While we will prepare a more detailed summary of the order, some of the more significant issues that the Commission addressed include the following:

Instead of the usual predictable predictions, I thought I would ring in the new year with five principles that I believe will guide the ongoing transformation of media companies.

• The music sites keep coming: MeeMix, SpiralFrog, Jango (VentureBeat)

• Radiohead frontman takes aim at EMI chief (Reuters)

• Web-only album 'mad', says Yorke (BBC)

• MC Hammer's next act: Tech entrepreneur (AP)

• Cooking.com Takes Out A $7 Million Loan (TechCrunch)

• Get an upconverting DVD player for $34.99 shipped (CNET)

• When will kids' online safety be taken seriously? (CNET)

When David Letterman’s The Late Show returns to regular programming tonight with its writers in tow, the first guest in the post-strike era will be Robin Williams. Industry observers had questioned the caliber of guests that talk shows would receive, and it was believed that Donald Trump would be Letterman’s first guest. But the Screen Actors Guild said it supported the appearance of its members on shows like Letterman’s after the Writers Guild of America approved of the strike stoppage for Worldwide Pants writers, the production company for The Late Show and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.