Hi, I'm a journalist who took an interest in captive-audience media several years ago after becoming familiar with Channel One (in-school commercial TV), BusRadio (commercial radio on public school buses), and subway TV. While researching the issue, I learned that little has been written about audience captivity even though media companies have made it quite plain that captive-audience platforms are one of their principal growth areas. In the years ahead, look for TVs to appear on buses, commuter trains, subways, bus stops, street corners, public restrooms, elevators, taxis, office lobbies, grocery stores and other retail settings—in short, any place where people gather for reasons other than to watch TV. I understand this issue isn’t a concern to many people, but there’s a sizable minority that is outraged by it. When a Washington Post blogger wrote about new TVs in her grocery store, the comments flooded in, and all of them expressed outrage over it. Another piece in the Post, on BusRadio, generated almost 300 comments, virtually all of them not just against the idea of BusRadio but vehemently against it. Yet when you read the press releases of companies involved in captive-audience media, the message is always the same: we’re giving people engaging, relevant content to enhance their experience. That’s their point of view, but what they’re not addressing is that many people don’t want to be force-fed content no matter how engaging the media companies think it is. And it’s disingenuous for media companies to compare captive-audience media to print advertising. The two types of media are very different. TV is an intrusive medium that can’t be ignored in the same way that print media can. Communications professionals are well aware of this. That's why they tout their platforms to advertisers as media that can't be tuned out. (See this quote by a former head of Channel One. Scroll down to the first bullet point.) It’s thus my goal with this blog to at least make sure that critics of captive-audience media have a voice.

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