microchannel
n. A television channel or website with programs or video streams that are targeted at a small and very specific slice of the viewing audience.
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Examples
2000
'Microchannels' — which would feature on-demand content on such topics as Big Apple-area music events and entertainment—will also be in Cablevision's digital mix. These microchannels, or 'video magazines,' would be VOD offerings on subscribers' areas of passion—such as music, style, fashion and restaurants—all topics also covered by the MetroChannels.
—Linda Moss, “Rainbow Cooks Up Local Digital Content,” Multichannel News, November 20, 2000
2000
Like the hydra-headed Web itself, Net TV promises to be a hugely fragmented beast, spawning so-called micro-channels devoted to the latest Disney release or power tools to construct the perfect garage, said Jeremy Schwartz, an analyst at Forrester Research, a media consulting firm.
—Richard Covington, “Net TV: New Stage for Video Creativity,” International Herald Tribune, July 05, 2000
2000 (earliest)
The introduction of the "red" and "green" channels is a small step into the new media environment. The channel names may be prosaic, but they will enable broadcasters and radio stations to stream programmes to suit local timetables and local audience habits. …

The introduction of the digital streaming has been greeted by perennial warnings of a death by a thousand cuts. "Splitting up the BBC into microchannels is just today's fad and to apply it to the World Service is just to be faddish," says one former World Service broadcaster.
—James Harding, “Split signals,” Financial Times (London,England), March 25, 2000
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