Mass media (TV, radio) was set up primarily to enable the mass marketing of mass produced, mass branded good to the public. The entertainment content came second.
Consequently, we have been trained to expect the content for free, as long as we put up with the advertising. Paying purely for content (and hopefully without the ads) in the form of subscription TV is a fairly recent innovation.
Contrast this with the Internet. This newest mass media was set up primarily to enable the exchange of information and communications between individuals. Advertising came much later.
Consequently we expect advertising to be optional, or be less intrusive than TV, on the Internet. We expect to have access to the tools to filter out advertising. And of course we still expect the content to be free.
Is this the reason why conventionally approached advertising has not really taken off on the Internet?
According to Australian government statistics in 2008, Nielsen Online reports that Australians are spending more time on the Internet than on watching TV. What does this mean for Internet advertising?
What is the subscription-TV equivalent innovation for the Internet?
