December 17, 2007
Competition and the Death of a Middle-class Mediocrity
Past Its Prime: TV ad buyers re-think mass-market model
Isn’t this a great graphic for trend followers and culture watchers?
When I grew up in rural New York State, we got one channel: NBC (WKTV-Utica). Cable came to town in 1982 (I think) and then we had eleven (?) channels to choose from. I think hundreds of channels are now available in the small village where I lived, but I don’t know because I stopped watching TV in my teens.
The elite power that the big three broadcasters had to enforce a kind-of middle-class mediocrity is gone. And what do we have in its place? Rupert Murdoch’s vast fortune was built on giving the people what they want: white trash bleating, berating and beating each other (think Springer, Cops, etc.), World’s Scariest Car Chases, so-called “news” with constant terror and disaster alerts keeping the little people on edge — this is what Boobus Americanus always wanted but never got from the old elite.
Think of the fat, rich, old white guys (like Bill Paley) sitting in their huge offices in New York paternalistically “protecting” the public… bye Bill!
One amusing thing is that PBS, the “high-brow” broadcaster, is largely taxpayer-funded. Alistair Cooke sitting in his wood-paneled library, next to that roaring fire… wasn’t that set all paid for by Exxon (if I remember correctly)?
Anyway, I’m rambling… nice chart though, no?
– via Kedrosky –
December 17th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Agree Network TV is crap.CNBC flat but some bright spots,its FOX competition never got off the ground.
Disagree on PBS but lot funded by Private and Corporate as Tax write offs.Theree arev worse ways to use this money.I am a classical music and jazz fan,both of which PBS fills the gap.Business coverage refreshing from CNBC and PBS does do wonders with kids and in school.
ESPN and all the variations bring Disney to us all and as a Basketball of anykind fan suites me.
ike
December 17th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Ugh. PBS sucks now. My wife and I used to watch it exclusively but it’s turned into the same vast wasteland as the rest of TV. The few good shows aren’t even produced in the US.
December 17th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
@ike: I only watch two channels in the gym: ESPN and Bloomberg.
@steve: That’s sad to hear… I used to enjoy watching Mystery and Robin MacNeil when he did the Newshour as well as the late, great Louis Rukeyser.
December 18th, 2007 at 12:13 am
The good news is that it appears to be going asymptotic!
December 18th, 2007 at 2:49 am
Were you a member of the Utica Club?
Ugh, bad tasting stuff.
December 18th, 2007 at 8:07 am
biff: I used to enjoy the factory tour there … the kids got root beer.
December 18th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Perhaps you’ll find this nostalgic then:
http://www.lostlandmarks.org/uc.html
December 18th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
biff: I didn’t realize that Saranac is now the “lifeblood” of the brewery. Thx for the link.