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Unified Communications Featured Article
July 14, 2009
Structural Change for Media and Entertainment Industries Accelerating During Recession?
By Gary KimRight now most service providers are more concerned about their performance through the recession than they are about adapting to structural change in the broader business. But the cyclical downturn does not alter or delay the changes coming in the global entertainment and media industries, say researchers at PricewaterhouseCoopers (News - Alert).
In fact, the recession might even accelerate some changes. "In this 'income elastic' climate where spending power has to stretch even further than before, this younger generation is now exerting influence over older generations who are, in turn, taking a growing interest in new and emerging platforms," says Marcel Fenez, global leader of the entertainment and media practice.
End-user spending through digital or mobile platforms accounted for 23.4 per cent of the overall consumer access market in 2008 and we expect this to account for 78 per cent of total growth during the next five years, says Fenez.
There is one problem the media and entertainment markets are not expected to have, though: revenue growth. The global entertainment and media market as a whole, including both consumer and advertising spending will grow by 2.7 percent compounded annually to $1.6 trillion in 2013.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers expects a 3.9 percent drop in 2009 and a mere 0.4 per cent advance in 2010, with a period of much faster growth during the remaining period to 7.1 per cent in 2013.
Of course, you can count on one thing: when business disruption is foreseen, all linear forecasts are going to err. It is at least possible that the forecast of incremental revenue growth will be proven wrong. But wrong in what direction, and by what magnitude?
Perhaps the more germane question is which segments might grow much faster and which will shrink. Much depends on whether content owners and distributors can figure a way to monetize digital and mobile content.
Gary Kim (News - Alert) is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Gary’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Jessica Kostek
