The Great TV Overdose
Pablo Escobar has capitalized on another American dependency syndrome. Everyones seems to be addicted to the new Escobar-themed Netflix show Narcos. Haven’t had a chance to check it out? Don’t feel bad. You may never have the chance. It turns out that the biggest challenge of the Internet age is keeping up with all the new TV shows. Quality television is today’s drug of choice and your living room is the new Studio 54. The number of new shows this year could, for the first time, surpass the 400 mark. That’s a lot of content to purge before you can even begin to binge. Picture Al Pacino in one of the final scenes of Scarface as he sits at his desk behind a mountain of cocaine. That’s basically you on your couch with the remote control in your hand. Can you ever have too much of a good thing? TV execs and consumers are worried that the answer to that is a resounding yes. Here’s the NYT’s John Kolbin on the new challenges of TV’s golden age.
+ The more pressing issue facing content creators is the increased use of ad-blocking software. And that issue is about to become a lot more immediate when Apple rolls out ad-blocking software to the masses.