The free-TV contract shifted against viewers as advertising proliferated

Evidence

Likewise, no one ever bought a TV merely to keep up with the latest shampoos or tobacco products, much less to be persuaded to buy them. But the terms of the attention merchants’ contract with the public, which once had seemed so easy and appealing—“free” entertainment in exchange for a moment of your consideration—seemed suddenly to have been revised, and not in the viewers’ favor. Pitches were proliferating, and the programs themselves, their narrative logic, seemed more and more contorted to fit the pitches. The sense of being commerce’s dupe was setting in. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 514

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Network market power let broadcasters raise ad load because viewers had no less-advertised alternative — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 477; Commercial-free premium television reemerged as a refuge from chaotic advertisement-saturated media — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1106; The remote control, DVR, and streaming shifted ad-viewing control to viewers — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1104 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Commercial-free premium television reemerged as a refuge from chaotic advertisement-saturated media #qualifies (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1106
• The remote control, DVR, and streaming shifted ad-viewing control to viewers #contradicts (0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1104
• Ad-supported media sell audiences’ attention, not content, to advertisers #qualifies (0.70) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 219