The Twistory of Advertising, Part Whatever.

In the beginning there were just the three TV networks: Peacock, Tiffany, and Huntley-Brinkley or whatever they called ABC at the time. That is, until Murdoch begat Fox, but that’s a cautionary homily for another time. Anyway, then did the pundits, critics, talking heads, and soothsayers soothsay: “this gonna play hell with theatrical cinema, movie theaters are toast.”

But, lo, they were a shade over their skis.  

Somewhere in there, Wiki pegs it around 1948, the first US cable system launched in Mahanoy City, PA. And, lest ye harbor doubts, the idea of a clearer signal and more viewing choices didn’t take long to take off; by 1983, some 53 million households had signed up for local wired service. Then did the pundits, critics, talking heads, and soothsayers soothsay, “this is big trouble for broadcast TV, just you watch.”

But, lo, they might have been crying wolf a smidge early.

Although, in truthiness, by 2001 and the aftermath of the dotcom deluge, just about everyone with an opinion, including the IBM Global Media Usage Study, was loudly sermonizing from their various mounts about an apocalyptic decline in TV viewing, coupled with cable taking over in every Tom, Dick, and Harrisville across the land. Then did the pundits, critics, talking heads, and soothsayers soothsay, “forsooth, it’s the predicted broadcast bummer.”

But, lo, between Boomers still glued to the tube and the NFL pumping up ratings thrice a week, that demise was greatly exaggerated.

Thus, did the book of days and dayparts continue to flip, eventually bringing us to the mid-aughts and the penetration of broadband internet along with increasing generational chord cutting. With more and more tongues flapping about streaming, and players like Netflix and Disney plowing multi-millions into production, it seemed big changes were, indeed, at hand. Then did the pundits, critics, talking heads, and soothsayers soothsay, “BTWs, this is also going to kill advertising along with broadcast and cable.”

But, lo, with stacking subscription fees making streaming more expensive than cable bundles, that demise was again greatly exaggerated.

Finally, we get to the present and most of the big streamers introducing ad-supported tiers as fast as their little coding fingers can walk back history. As a result, commercial advertising pods aren’t just back, they’re now running up to 180 seconds and likely to grow ever longer and more irritating. Then will the critics, talking heads, and soothsayers, undoubtedly, have even more to sooth about.

But lo, thusly do we realize that the more things change, the more they stay the same, only worse.

And so, overlooking a few minor factual liberties taken here and there, was it written and hopefully in Number 2 pencil.  Because that which is printed in ink just smears when you try to erase things and that would make it harder for people to see the wisdom of experts in all things, especially advertising.

Next week: the story of Rabbi Nielsen and the Cross-Platform Shpilkes.