Refining not oil supply is driving gas prices. The largest U.S. refinery strike in 35 years enters its fourth week workers at 12 refineries accounting for one-fifth of national production capacity are walking picket lines. The refinery work stoppage began on February 1st. The work stoppage now includes the nation's largest refinery at Port Arthur, Texas. (Reuters)

Another media hit by the digital age. The world's largest coffee-house chain, Starbucks, will stop selling CDs at the end of March in its 21,000 stores worldwide. CD sales nationally have been declining; they dropped another 15% in 2014. The company is expected to replace the CD racks with smaller racks that hold plastic digital download cards, similar to the iTunes card, that are Starbucks branded.(USA Today)

Last night’s Academy Awards were the most watched TV other than post-season football all year.  So you know it has huge economic impacts so here are some facts. (Forbes)

In 2014 the price for ad time increased for the fifth consecutive year. The average cost for a 30 second ad in 2014 was $1.76 million and total ad volume was $95 million. (Kantar Media)

In 2014 the Oscar telecast on average had 10 minutes and 58 seconds of advertising time each hour, the highest it had ever been. Nonetheless, the commercial load for a typical prime time hour on broadcast television is in the 14-16 minutes range. (Kantar Media)

The top five advertisers for the Oscar telecast over the past five years have been JC Penney ($50.8 million), Hyundai ($44.9 million), Samsung ($43.4 million), Coca-Cola ($31.1 million) and American Express ($28.8 million). Over the five years, these five advertisers have spent nearly $200 million on the show accounting for 49% of total ad volume for the show. (Kantar Media)

Since 1978 there have been three films to win both Best Picture Oscar and gross over $300 million in the U.S. Titanic $600.8 million released in 1997, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King $377.0 million released in 2003 and Forrest Gump $329.7 million released in 1994.  American Sniper will be the fourth.  (Box Office Mojo)