In a 1991 letter to shareholders, Warren Buffett articulated a sea change in the media landscape that was undergirding his investment thesis—a transition from the halcyon days of a few high-margin cable fiefdoms to an increasingly fragmented news and entertainment ecosystem, one in which “500 million American eyeballs and a 24-hour day are all that’s available.”
On some level, Buffett’s observation reflected the impact of Ted Turner’s then decade-old Cable News Network, which rewired audiences’ expectations about news consumption. For generations, most people read a newspaper in the morning, maybe tuned out some radio during their drive to work, and then checked back in with Brokaw or Jennings or Rather in the evening. CNN changed all that, as Buffett presciently noted.
