Toward Content Intermediation: Shedding New Light on the Media Sector

Abstract

During the last 2 decades, the media sector has changed at an unusual speed. Actual concepts describing this industry such as the media value chain are heavily challenged to grasp all relevant evolutions. This article outlines a new perspective on the media sector by modeling institutions such as music labels and radio stations as intermediaries on content markets. The concept of content intermediation is established based on the economic theories of intermediation with their assumption of imperfect market conditions between supply and demand, which result in transaction costs and the need for help by intermediaries. A preliminary catalogue of functions is derived and the case of music content intermediation demonstrates the potential of the concept.