Quick: Name the biggest star in prime-time television.
Now: Name a star created by the Internet
I suggest you read “The Extinction of Mass Culture” by Senior Fortune writer Marc Gunther.
The advent of 300 channels and the Internet has fragmented audiences – and the explosion of choice has left us poorer.
According to Gunther TV’s biggest stars are Oprah Winfrey and Katie Couric, but they don’t appear in prime time and they’ve been around for years – before the 300-channel universe fragmented audiences and damaged broadcast TV’s hit-making machinery. The Internet is by nature a niche medium so it has not created any stars, and probably won’t.
All we have here is an infinite number of choices and a long trail of confusion. Can we expect less and less blockbusters? Absolutely