Riding current viral trends in real time sustains audience anticipation

Evidence

In business, there is always potential to gain something by zigging while everyone else is zagging. With everyone else—including its closest rival, Hulu, a joint venture of other media companies—reliant on advertising, Netflix could distinguish itself by offering a different kind of experience. But there was something more; in a sense, Netflix rediscovered a lost trove of human attention; not the splintered and fleeting kind being plundered by the web and cable TV, but deeper, sustained attention. It was a rich vein indeed, filled with an evident hunger for more engaging, immersive content. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1098 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Lifestreaming simultaneously creates ambient co-presence and audience-driven drama — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 553; Viral attention mobilized by the internet evaporates as quickly as it arises; Subscriptions capture deeper sustained attention than the fragmented kind advertising harvests — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1098 (+1 more)

Related

• Subscriptions capture deeper sustained attention than the fragmented kind advertising harvests (similarity 0.88)
• Trend-riding content sustains audience anticipation around daily posts (similarity 0.79)
• Lifestreaming simultaneously creates ambient co-presence and audience-driven drama (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Viral attention mobilized by the internet evaporates as quickly as it arises #complicates (0.85)
• Subscriptions capture deeper sustained attention than the fragmented kind advertising harvests #complicates (0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1098