Some readers here may not have experience with the TV before cable and the remote control. In the old days, you had an antenna on the roof and your TV had “rabbit ears” and a knob that turned to give you access to the array of programming that was ABC, NBC, and CBS. (Maybe a PBS station mixed in there but I don’t remember.)
Those networks controlled pretty much everything anyone saw or heard outside of newspapers which you might consider a collective fourth channel to reach people.
Today it’s reported that Google has 28.9% of the ad market, Facebook has 25.2% and Amazon is growing share at a fast clip - to 10.8% from 7.8% in 2019 and it’s expected to reach 12.8% in 2023. (This noted by Numlock News citing the WSJ.)
It seems like three channels isn’t a stable situation. The shift to cable TV created hundreds of channels. The internet has consolidated us back to three.
What’s next? What if we move from the “2D” internet to a more “3D” version that incorporates more AR/VR/XR, virtual worlds, and things that don’t fit into the Google search, YouTube pre-rolls, Facebook feeds, or buy on Amazon?
No doubt the big three are going to use their vast resources to figure out how to control those virtual billboards but it feels like there may be some new playing fields where new players might have advantages over the three incumbents.
I hope so.