Cable networks rose by targeting demographic fragments instead of mass audiences

Evidence

Into the late 1980s, a dozen cable networks launched, each targeted not at the middle, like CBS and NBC, but at some demographic fragment. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 615

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly supports the reader’s interest in attention-industry history; connects to the fragmentation lineage that audience-targeting industries share with the advertiser-driven broadcast model.
• XREF: connects to: Early cable channels organized around specific identity and demographic segments — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 616; Broadcast networks actively molded homogeneous postwar Americans into a unified consumer mass — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 618; Cable networks must cater to niche audiences rather than mass ones. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 813 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Cable networks must cater to niche audiences rather than mass ones. #corroborates (0.95) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 813