A year ago, would anyone have believed that home videos of my dog could become the kind of killer content that could topple the major movie studios and keep media moguls awake at night?

Accenture's latest piece of research has found that such a scenario is not at all out of the question. In fact, it shows that the proliferation of "user-generated content" (UGC) – including amateur digital videos, podcasts, mobile phone photography, wikis and social-media blogs – has become a growing threat to the media and entertainment industries.

Every month people ask me what I think of the same store sales numbers. What difference did an early Easter make? Was it new product that boosted a retailer's numbers? What effect do weather and gas prices have on shopping?

They are all relevant questions but what's most interesting about retail numbers today is where are the online sales? I have yet to get this question and wonder if people assume online sales are included in the monthly numbers or, even worse, if the millions of dollars transacted online are thought insignificant. Online sales are not included in the monthly retail numbers although I believe they should be.