longtail - Medialoper

In a weird sort of sleight of hand, media analysts reviewing Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail focus on the example of Netflix as both embodiment of the theory and refutation of the impact of long tail revenues. As the Wall Street Journal noted:

The currently popular notion that hits are becoming less important due to the vast reach of cyberspace would strike most Hollywood executives as preposterous. For good or bad, moguls make the opposite assumption. They can be forgiven for doing so; after just three weeks of release, the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel is already Hollywood’s all-time 11th biggest grosser, and No. 63 when adjusted for inflation.

This was how we watched television in the 20th Century: we would crowd around the tiny TV, watching shows whenever the broadcasters decided to show them — or maybe on a VCR, where we fast-forwarded past commercials on an ever-blurry tape. When a familiar actor or actress showed up onscreen, there would be some conversation about where we may have seen that person before, but nobody could actually remember.

This is how we watch television in the 21st century: Instead of the tiny TV, we have a nice HD; instead of the VHS, we have the DVR, and whenever a familiar face, or even a “Hey It’s that Guy!” shows up on the screen, we fire up a wireless-connected laptop, because it’s time to IMDb that person.

The IMDb, of course, is the Internet Movie Database. And it’s become a verb around our house because it is, without a doubt, one of single greatest examples of how the Internet changed everything.

long-tail

Hollywood’s True Long Tail

That’s What I Like: IMDb