Success Quote by Jeff Zucker

A tidy little mission statement for the modern media squeeze: everyone is the customer, which is another way of saying no one is. Jeff Zucker’s line works because it’s corporate candor dressed up as inevitability. “It’s a growing trend” is the rhetorical shrug, a way to launder responsibility through the market, as if editorial and product choices are just weather systems rolling in.

The real reveal is the pivot from singular to plural: “Viewers are our customers, but so are advertisers.” That “but” matters. It admits the central tension in ad-supported media without calling it a conflict of interest. Viewers want fewer interruptions, more trust, cleaner experiences. Advertisers want attention, data, and measurable outcomes. By naming both as customers, Zucker reframes what could sound like a compromise of audience-first values into a balanced service model. It’s not betrayal; it’s “serving stakeholders.”

“Different ways to reach our viewers” is where the subtext hardens into strategy. This isn’t just about more ad slots; it’s about new surfaces and surveillance: product integration, native ads, sponsorships that mimic content, targeted advertising powered by tracking, cross-platform campaigns that follow you from TV to phone. The viewer is simultaneously the buyer and the product being packaged.

Contextually, this sits squarely in the post-cable, platform-era scramble, when ratings softness and subscription competition made traditional commercials less potent. Zucker is signaling adaptation, but also normalizing an arms race for attention where the audience’s experience becomes negotiable and the wall between content and commerce gets thinner by design.