I'm not saying it's a wholesale rejection of liberal ideology, but clearly a significant portion of those who watch TV have specifically migrated away from the Norman Lear types who spew their agenda.
I believe the migration went from the broadcast networks, including the nightly news to cable. With cable you can kind of choose your philosophical perspective, at least more so than the monolithic broadcast network.
Now, however, even cable is drowning in ads with literally dozens of channels seemingly running nothing but infomercials! Who buys these crappy kitchen gadgets and vacuums anyways??
So yes, I do think ideology has played a big part of this migration, but so too, as you point out, is the utter relentlessness of TV commercials, kind of like what happened, in part, with FM radio.
Commercials and low cost of netflix did it. Political idealogy had nothing to do with it.
I remember discovering FM radio in the St Louis ‘burbs in 66 or 67 — totally free of commercials. You almost had to be in a secret brotherhood to know about the “the underground.” As you say, that didn’t last long.
I can’t find new music on Internet radio — too much excruciatingly awful crud to wade through. But other recommendations from other fans and aficionados are hugely valuable especially with one minute previews on iTunes. Plus the ability to buy a single song and not another 10 pieces of drek.