Cable networks must cater to niche audiences rather than mass ones.

Evidence

By 2015, OWN had reverted to the basic logic of cable programming, which has always demanded catering to a niche audience. It repositioned itself primarily as a competitor to BET, Black Entertainment Television, finding success with soap operas like The Haves and Have Nots and If Loving You Is Wrong. But in any event, Winfrey’s own fade as a celebrity attention merchant might be taken as irrelevant given the spiritual survival of the model she created. For her one-woman show gave rise to successors like Ellen DeGeneres, Dr. Phil, Rachael Ray, and other celebrity-attention-product-endorsers faithfully following the Winfrey path. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 813

Categorization

• SEED: The migration of celebrity attention merchants (Winfrey to DeGeneres, Dr. Phil, etc.) could anchor an essay on how personal-brand media replaced authoritative broadcasters.
• XREF: connects to: Early cable channels organized around specific identity and demographic segments — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 616; Cable networks rose by targeting demographic fragments instead of mass audiences — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 615; Cable television idealists envisioned choice as democratizing attention sovereignty. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 625 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Premium commercial-free cable channels grew to near network prime-time audiences #exemplifies (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1102