Chasing the Long Tail

Given your involvement in digital media, you've no doubt heard of The Long Tail http://www.thelongtail.com. This is the notion, made famous by former Wired editor Chris Anderson, that suggests that people value highly cherished entertainment content that's important to them but that they can't find anywhere but online because it's viewed by the major content owners as too obscure to sell at retail (theory being that the audience isn't big enough).

The Long Tail effect features prominently in where we are moving with digital entertainment. Television distribution will be tightly niched as the ability to customize and personalize content comes to the fore. Even an audience of one should be able to retrieve content of his/her choosing assuming it has been digitized given the myriad distribution channels we now have at our disposal. Every industry, hobby or topic that can sustain a market will have a place in the digital entertainment network. Social networking will allow individuals to very accurately find what other people with the same interests are viewing. Lawn bowlers can see what other lawn bowling fans enjoyed by simply viewing the top 10 most watched shows by lawn bowlers. You get the idea. This is a gold mine of untapped revenue opportunity both for big media content companies who own rich, deep niche content archives -- AND for DIY consumers alike who simply want to become a more active part of the global community and get their content out there.