Barclays held its second annual Internet Connect Conference this week with a full slate of major media companies attending and presenting. While no major news was dropped during the conference, analyst Mark May did highlight a few trends that were evident on many of the panels. Fulfillment, customer service, and free shopping are "increasingly playing" in the marketplace. As far as ad-tech goes, participants emphasized that improvements in targeting and measurability are speeding the flow of offline budgets onto the Web. Lastly, e-commerce firms pointed to the payroll tax increase as a possible cause for 1Q softness.

AMC Networks (AMCX) reported 4Q results this week that got Anthony DiClemente pretty juiced. Higher programming spend going forward and the carriage disruption with DISH squeezed margins but revenues exceeded the estimates of the Barclays analyst. Despite having fewer programming hours in the quarter than for the same period a year ago, advertising growth posted an impressive +16% growth rate.

Janney's Tony Wible started the week off with a look at social TV. Twitter generated 24.1 million Super Bowl related tweets. Given the interest surrounding social media, companies are actively trying to leverage second screen behavior - something which negatively impacts ad engagement. Wible said that Facebook (FB) is particularly interested in tapping the content discovery process as the massive social network believes viewers are keenly interested in the content their friends watch or talk about.

IPG's Mediabrands (IPG) announced a significant reorganization of its senior management team, moving Jackie Kelley up to Mediabrands N.A. and UMWW Canada's Peter Mears to the senior Initiative role. The company is also using this opportunity and hiring of senior Microsoft and Facebook employees to realign its overall corporate structure. Pivotal Research Group's Brian Wieser believes this is more than just tactics; IPG's overhaul has major strategic implications. "The new structure appears to better mirror the manner in which marketers make their budgeting decisions - at a country or regional level, rather than at a global one," the analyst wrote in his weekly Madison & Wall newsletter.

Time Warner (TWX) reported 4Q12 results that Credit Suisse analyst Michael Senno thought were "solid". Revenues of $8.16B came in slightly higher than his expectations and EPS of $1.17 easily exceeded the consensus $1.10. He seemed most impressed with the margin expansion at Networks and Film, driven by cost reductions and a shift towards higher margin business (i.e. digital, TV production). Management also hiked the dividend by 11% and issued a new $4B share repurchase authorization. This prompted Chris Merwin at Barclays to raise his 2013 EPS estimate to $3.65 (prev. $3.62) and his price target to $52 (from $43). While TWX has done a good job managing its business in 2012, Nomura's Michael Nathanson believes that there's no "significant room for earnings revisions". He's Neutral on the stock with a $55 price target.

Viacom (VIAB) reported F1Q EPS results of $0.91 that beat the Street's $0.90 EPS estimates. While he decreased FY13 estimates to $4.65 (from $4.73), Janney's Tony Wible was pretty enthusiastic about the media firm's results. Nick ratings continued to put a damper on advertising revenues but the analyst thought VIAB did a good job on affiliate revenues and controlling costs.

In many ways, 2012 was a year of contrasts. Nowhere was that better exemplified than Facebook (FB). As a private company, trading in Facebook stock was vigorous as early investors sold their shares to later stage investors, ravenously buying a piece of what was slated to be the IPO of the year (if not decade).

Nomura analyst Michael Nathanson published his thoughts this week on what 2013 has in store for U.S. Media companies. Entitled "Will 2013 Be a Replay of 2012", the analyst's report begins with a quick summary of last year's media industry highlights, replete with high single-digit affiliate fees and massive capital returns combined with low valuations. Indeed, many media stocks enjoyed a great year.

A couple of tech giants reported this week and Wall Street -- along with the market -- responded to news of their earnings in drastically different ways.