Even with the explosion from the grassroots, there’s still going to be a need for mass culture, for truly great entertainment that transcends all the little niches and links people together. So even when some guy in Akron, Ohio, comes up with a funny show, it’ll just be one in a universe of little grass-roots shows out there. How do people find it? How do they know about it? Hollywood is still going to popularize the best that comes up from below, and try to make killer copyrights out of them.
Predictor: Sassa, Scott
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Wired magazine, David Kline interviews Scott Sassa president of Turner Entertainment Group. After asking, “So Hollywood’s not dead?” Kline quotes Sassa saying: ”Did you ever see the original episode of [TV series] ‘Max Headroom’? You should watch it. Rent it and watch it, because it’s really cool. What happens is that in this apocalyptic future, everybody has his or her own channel, but nobody can afford to make any real movies, so all the TV shows are like…. You know, it’s like people carry their own little camera and walk around with a little satellite dish producing this really boring stuff. You know, just people talking. The point is, even with the explosion from the grassroots, there’s still going to be a need for mass culture, for truly great entertainment that transcends all the little niches and links people together. So even when some guy in Akron, Ohio, comes up with a funny show, it’ll just be one in a universe of little grass-roots shows out there. How do people find it? How do they know about it? Hollywood is still going to popularize the best that comes up from below, and try to make killer copyrights out of them.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Savvy Sassa: If Mass Media is Obsolete, and Pointcasting is the Future of Media, Why Would Anyone in Their Right Mind Want to Buy a Broadcast Network? (Or What Does Turner Entertainment’s Wunderkind President Scott Sassa Know That You Don’t?)
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.03/sassa_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney