Fox launched in 1986 by explicitly targeting audiences the networks ignored

Evidence

In 1986 the Fox Broadcasting Company suddenly appeared on televisions across America, its unstated mission to serve the un-served, at least in terms of entertainment. Its owner was an Australian newspaper magnate, Rupert Murdoch; its chairman and CEO, Barry Diller, a self-styled programming revolutionary himself. Out came a show conceived to be the “anti–Cosby Show” (in response to the hugely popular NBC sitcom starring Bill Cosby as a prosperous physician and occasionally befuddled father). Married…with Children was the chronicle of Al Bundy, an unhappy salesman of women’s shoes; his lazy, lubricious, and self-indulgent wife, Peggy; their promiscuous and blazingly stupid daughter, Kelly; and their alienated, sarcastic son, Bud. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 621

Categorization

• SEED: The ‘anti-Cosby Show’ positioning as a deliberate two-front strategy — class and audience segmentation — could anchor an essay on how challengers define themselves against the incumbent’s defining success.
• XREF: connects to: Fox’s strategy targeted audiences alienated from the broadcast mainstream — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 623

Broader Connections

• Fox’s strategy targeted audiences alienated from the broadcast mainstream #corroborates (0.95) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 623