The Broadcasting Industry
Broadcasting and the mass media are in their final days. Major shifts are occurring in the technology, the customer, and the business of broadcasting. The first major shift is occurring with the technology itself.
Anyone who doubts the power and rapidity with which the digital revolution can storm a market need only look at the impact of CD’s in revolutionizing music and publishing. But CD’s are a pioneering phase, because the digital data are still stored and distributed on a physical medium. The next wave of digitization will truly transform the music industry as well as both television and radio. The issue 1re is not quality (distortions can be eliminated) or capacity (so much more data can be sent over a given amount of bandwidth). Rather, digital transmission and digital networks will revolutionize everything about broadcasting as profoundly as radio and television transformed the nature : their predecessor—publishing.