Are The Networks Showing Their Age?

Digital Home Entertainment, Jan/Feb 1998

As mentioned here, I took over as the editor of Digital Home Entertainment, a Home Theater sister publication, in late 1998. Prior to my turning it into a product-focused gadget mag, founding EIC Brett Anderson envisioned it as a “convergence”-themed magazine, picking up on the buzzword of the day suggesting that technology and media were coming together as a consequence of new delivery platforms such as the internet, increased competition among content makers, and technologies that promised to make your television — or your computer — your everyday hub for entertainment and home automation. (The iPhone was still nearly 10 years away). Toward the end of the magazine’s first run, I was asked to write this cover story about the threats and opportunities facing the legacy broadcast networks. Some 28 years later, the audience fragmentation I cited back then has increased dramatically with the introduction of many more content providers online and on cable, not to mention the convenience of on-demand streamed programming. But the networks continue to chug along on the strength of their live sports programming and news divisions (both of which are now showing signs of strain), and the retransmission fees for local programming collected from cable/satellite providers and streaming services. Each are now also part of larger corporate entities that help keep them vital.