global-entertainment-and-media-outlook GEMO PWC 2008-2012

PWC is now presenting its Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2008-2012. Manuel Martín Espada partner and responsible for Telecom., Entertainment & Media in Spain points the “windows fragmentation” and the fact that “content is king”.

Not getting into the concrete figures -they are just a reference that will be soon invalidated- main growth drivers in the period are:

- DVR. C3 and Live+7 (viewing of contents 3 or 7 days after broadcast). In fact DVR was born with the purpose of avoiding advertising. (The study here seems to give not much importance to this fact, but the possibility to watch contents without advertising with DVR is in my opinion another threat to online media sustainability as we understand it today).

- IPTV and streaming: HULU (NBC + News Corporation) is an example of online alternative to DVR. In fact, DVR could be of little sense if this alternative develops quickly.

- HD (High Definition) is already growing and it will grow exponentially in 2009 as people move to digital TV. One problem could be that if other qualities are good enough, this one could be a nice technology with minor adoption.

- Unavoidable advertising in streaming.

- Hyper local and geolocalised advertising

- Advertising networks will be key facilitators and they are a strategic node

- Publishing: digitalization is key and on demand printing could finally take off

- e-books and audiobooks will grow exponentially

- Videogames. MMGOs (Massive Multiplayer Games) will impulse growth. PC games decrease although they remain to be sometimes a requirement to play online

Definitely, content and services are king. I think GEMO should have pointed out more other services, like organizing information (i.e. google) and, maybe even more relevant, qualitative content selectors (social:like digg or wikipedia; institutional: like universities or business schools). An added value could be just to give credit to what is really valuable. Providing added value services around content will be another key growth driver in the coming years.