"Drama or comedy programming is still the surest way for advertisers to reach a mass audience. Once that changes, all bets are off"
About this Quote
A veteran of broadcast’s most reliable machine, Dick Wolf isn’t romanticizing storytelling here; he’s underwriting a business model. The line reads like calm industry realism, but it carries a quiet warning: scripted entertainment isn’t just culture, it’s the last broadly shared delivery system for advertising in a fragmented media economy.
Wolf’s specific intent is pragmatic. He’s arguing that drama and comedy remain the closest thing TV has to “appointment viewing” at scale, the kind that keeps viewers from skipping away, multitasking, or vanishing into niche communities. Sports can be bigger, news can be urgent, reality can be cheap, but none reliably offers advertisers the same recurring, brand-safe, emotionally sticky environment that a durable scripted series does. Wolf’s own empire (procedurals designed for habit) is built on that very predictability.
The subtext is leverage. If advertisers still need mass reach, the people who can manufacture it - showrunners, studios, networks - retain pricing power. “Once that changes, all bets are off” is less prophecy than threat assessment: if ad dollars no longer require communal audiences, the economic justification for expensive writers’ rooms, long production schedules, and unionized labor weakens. The industry’s center of gravity would shift toward cheaper content, tighter targeting, and platforms that sell precision instead of prestige.
Context matters: streaming splintered audiences, social platforms swallowed attention, and ad tech promised one-to-one targeting. Wolf is naming the last sturdy bridge between old TV economics and the new attention market - and admitting it won’t hold forever.
Wolf’s specific intent is pragmatic. He’s arguing that drama and comedy remain the closest thing TV has to “appointment viewing” at scale, the kind that keeps viewers from skipping away, multitasking, or vanishing into niche communities. Sports can be bigger, news can be urgent, reality can be cheap, but none reliably offers advertisers the same recurring, brand-safe, emotionally sticky environment that a durable scripted series does. Wolf’s own empire (procedurals designed for habit) is built on that very predictability.
The subtext is leverage. If advertisers still need mass reach, the people who can manufacture it - showrunners, studios, networks - retain pricing power. “Once that changes, all bets are off” is less prophecy than threat assessment: if ad dollars no longer require communal audiences, the economic justification for expensive writers’ rooms, long production schedules, and unionized labor weakens. The industry’s center of gravity would shift toward cheaper content, tighter targeting, and platforms that sell precision instead of prestige.
Context matters: streaming splintered audiences, social platforms swallowed attention, and ad tech promised one-to-one targeting. Wolf is naming the last sturdy bridge between old TV economics and the new attention market - and admitting it won’t hold forever.
Quote Details
| Topic | Marketing |
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