Modularization, Individualization and the First-Copy-Cost-Effect –Shedding new light on the Production and Distribution ofMedia Content

The media industry is one of the industries which have recently undergone most dramaticchanges in the production and distribution of their products. New technologies, based on theparadigm of digitization, enable a more modularized production of media content and its individualizationfor specific consumer needs. While media content has primarily been producedmonolithically and barely on the basis of modules, modularized production currently gainsimportance and will likely be the prevalent concept in the future. However, this doesn’t meanthat modularized content production is per se beneficial in every case (Magnusson, 2000).Since traditional theory on content production – such as the concept of economies of scale –is focused on monolithic content production, it can hardly explain the – positive or negative –impact of modularization and individualization and should be rethought. Most research onmodularization was primarily empirical and qualitative in nature and did not focus on a particularindustry (Magnusson, 2000). Thus, it has not yet captured the specificities of modularizationin the media industry and has not provided a theoretical fundament for the modularizedproduction of media content....