The model for TV in the 1960s was three major networks supported by mass advertising. And so the shows that were produced were banal, reassuring and fairly inexpensive to produce. The goal was simply to keep someone from watching the other two channels.
The business model in the Netflix age, with multiple streaming channels racing to gain market share among affluent consumers with a surfeit of choice, is fundamentally different. And as a result, so is the content being produced.
It’s not that the TV people wanted to watch suddenly changed–it’s that the economic model for delivering it did.
The business model for news has changed, and so the news has. Not what’s happening in the world, but the way the internet reports it.
The business model for all the lifestyle (health, gossip, etc.) filler we see has changed as well. And so it goes…
And for many people, the biggest change is this: the business model of social networks has replaced the simple act of being in community.