Fox’s strategy targeted audiences alienated from the broadcast mainstream

Evidence

In each case, whether broadcast or cable, Murdoch and Diller chased audiences believed, one way or another, to have fallen through the cracks, who had somehow disdained, or been disdained by, the mainstream. Not every new program worked, needless to say: Babes, a sitcom about three overweight sisters sharing an apartment, didn’t last long, nor did Get a Life, about a thirty-year-old paperboy who moves back in with his parents. But hits like The Simpsons, together with the Fox News Channel, with its steady rise of market share, more than made up for the duds. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 623

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Murdoch targeting the alienated as an attention strategy parallels how grievance operates in media covering; relevant to ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ framing of identity-driven attention capture.
• XREF: connects to: Fox launched in 1986 by explicitly targeting audiences the networks ignored — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 621; The rise of personalized web consumption ended broadcasters’ power to compel attention — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 921; Network market power let broadcasters raise ad load because viewers had no less-advertised alternative — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 477 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• The rise of personalized web consumption ended broadcasters’ power to compel attention #complicates (0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 921
• Network market power let broadcasters raise ad load because viewers had no less-advertised alternative #corroborates (0.72) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 477