The implication is that users/subscribers/audience members are loyal and will stay with the programming for some time. There is also a second implication that businesses which are not measured by audience size don’t have this loyal and recurring revenue base. The absence of an “audience” implies transience and impermanence and results in deep discounting of long-term viability. Which is why ecosystems are the desired business construct for technology companies. They allow a more consistent and repeatable transaction model and offer a predictability which is sorely lacking […] when technology changes rapidly. It allows a company to define itself on its customers rather than on its products.
From Horace