audience fragmentation

Division of audiences into small groups due to the wide spectrum of media outlets. This is a situation that becomes increasingly baffling to advertisers as the specialization of publications and broadcast opportunities becomes even more diverse. In addition, the advent of cable television has made a vast number of television stations available to viewing audiences as well as confusing the geographic locations of viewers. For example: New York audiences can now watch programming of Atlanta, Philadelphia, or Boston stations, and Southern California receives programming from New York. This leaves a fragmented viewing audience in that consumers in California usually cannot avail themselves of services delivered in New York. Additionally, viewers now have the opportunity to watch two or three times as many television stations as in the past, so that audience size for any one local station is likely to be smaller than in the past. This situation creates an economic problem for advertisers who need to reach large audiences to make their advertising dollars cost-effective. In addition, since the number of viewers determines the advertising rates, audience fragmentation will affect the networks' revenues as the audience size diminishes. As audiences become more fragmented, the major networks will need to create new revenue sources.