From the vantage point of Jon Miller, former CEO of AOL and now a partner at the high-profile Velocity Interactive Group, the frenzied activity all makes sense, at least as a natural progression of the industry. Having worked in big media for a long time, and now looking at later stage start-ups as part of his investment thesis, he has a good grasp of the overall landscape. He is also among the possible nominees for CNET Networks board, if the consortium carrying on the proxy fight wins. I spoke to Miller yesterday on the issues, and more (before Time Warner announced its decisions on AOL today).

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Movie, television and radio writers have been striking since last fall. Meanwhile, “American Idol”’s ratings dropped sharply versus this time last year, and that’s a show that doesn’t need writers. Why? Well, viewers are going online. YouTube traffic has gone up 18% over the last two months, and Sony’s Crackle (formerly Grouper) has doubled from 1.2 million to 2.4 million users over the course of last fall, according to Nielsen Online.

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