The Fragmented Media Future: The driver of this disruption is the dynamic of fragmentation, which is playing out along three dimensions simultaneously.
Audience fragmentation. As an expanding array of media and entertainment choices make claims on consumers? time, the amount of time they spend with traditional media, from television to magazines, is declining. Mass audiences are shrinking.
Personal fragmentation. Consumers are spreading their media time and dollars around, spending less time with TV, magazines and other traditional media in favor of newer media like the Internet and video games.
Media fragmentation. Media itself is beginning to fragment in dramatic ways. Individual songs and episodes of TV series are available for sale via download. Digital ?feeds? of newspaper and magazine content allow consumers to read parts of a publication out of context without ever seeing the rest. Cable companies may soon offer individual channels a la carte. [...]
These changes will threaten established practices and entrenched interests in the media and advertising sectors, but consumers will benefit and ultimately, companies that can ride this wave will benefit as well. They have no choice. Take movies: Nearly 100% of the growth in movie industry revenues over the last 50 years has come from new markets, such as home video, and new platforms, such as DVD.
