Just a few short weeks before he takes leadership of Discovery Communications, David Zaslav said that his strategy will be to dig deeper into the market to attract viewers who are "more passionate and devoted" to the company's channels.
His idea is that advertisers will pay more for a more targeted audience, which will result in higher CPMs. The result he says will be that the programming can then bring in more revenue than higher-rated programs.
Zaslav said: "You have to evaluate what your brand is and sometimes it's not about getting the highest ratings--if you try and make some of these niche 
channels too broad, then you get outside of who you are."
The question is asked about whether niche marketing fails to balance itself by not trying to also appeal to a more mass audience. People that say stuff like this are about 20 years behind times; if not more. The two can't mix, and Zaslav knows it. He said that it doesn't make any sense.
If Zaslav will stick to this - in spite of the pressures by some to try to operate like someone from decades ago that still pretends there's such a thing as a mass market - he should really help Discovery Communications to develop a strong base.
To try to appeal to a mass audience that no longer exists is plain stupid ... to say the least. Hopefully he won't do something that caters to the crowd that lives in ignorance of the fragmented marketplace.
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