2009 Global Digital Media - Entertainment Trends and Statistics

The entertainment market as a whole continues to be reshaped in light of technological advancements and new industry partnerships. Developments in online video, IPTV and home media centres are intensifying as the underlying technologies continue to converge. Much of the world is also moving towards all-digital broadcasting and North America and Europe are considered to be the most developed TV markets in the world, with growth occurring rapidly in parts of Asia. Around 28% of all TV households worldwide are now equipped to receive digital TV broadcasts.

The Internet remains a popular pastime for consumers and online services such as music, gambling and online dating generate billions in revenue each year. Social media developments are also fascinating and exciting. They show the great potential of the new communication and information tools that are becoming available thanks to the Internet, Web 2.0, email and broadband infrastructure. However, for these new social media tools to succeed, they need to be fully and totally integrated into our daily communication. Current social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, Google and Second Life are great incubators for these new services; they provide us with new tools and allow us to experiment.

Online video has also proved popular with the success of Google’s YouTube being well documented. While in 2009 YouTube continues to dominate in terms of the numbers of viewers, we are now also seeing new business models emerging that explore better ways to generate revenue from such sites. Attention is turning towards Hulu in particular, as it demonstrates that users will watch longer-form TV and video content and tolerate advertising – under the right conditions.

Around the world home media entertainment centres continue to evolve as the technologies converge to incorporate a variety of consumer electronic devices, from digital TVs, to multi-room DVRs, digital media adapters, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players and game consoles. There is a drive to incorporate IP-based connectivity in more and more CE and PC devices and TVs in particular are fast becoming the focus for home media centre developments. Sales of networked TV equipped with wireless functionality are expected to increase in the years ahead.

While Europe and Asia have the most dynamic IPTV markets, recently in the USA the telcos’ IPTV plans, on the back of their fibre deployments, have started to gather significant momentum. However, on the whole, around the world, customers continue to be more interested in the web-based broadband video applications rather than IP-based TV. The economic downturn may also deter telcos from expanding their IPTV coverage over the next couple of years and subscriber growth could be curbed as consumers reign in their spending on luxury services.

The Internet media companies are continuously looking for new opportunities within the digital media and entertainment sector. Leading companies like Google have widespread interests and an ability to be at the forefront of innovation. The potential opportunities presented by the large emerging market of China has also not gone unnoticed and after a slow start, we are now seeing increasingly rapid development of Internet entertainment in China. The pace of development has really been quickening as more and more of the population gain access to the Internet. However, in order to reach its full potential, there are many Internet-related issues still needing to be confronted, not least of which is the regulatory regime. Controversial action by the Chinese government in respect of Internet companies such as Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft continues to loom as problematic.

This report provides a valuable insight into the developments taking place in the digital media entertainment sector. It includes information and broad global statistics on key online entertainment services. It provides detailed information and statistics on two of the most popular online activities – social media and online video.

The report also examines the IPTV market and the evolving home media and home networking sectors. Broad statistics and developments are included for digital broadcasting including DTV, HDTV, interactive TV and cable TV. The report explores the impact that digital media has had on the traditional media and the changes they are making to evolve in the new landscape. Information on the leaders to date, the Internet media companies, is included along with a more detailed case study on Google. Valuable insights and statistics for the emerging Internet entertainment market of China are also provided along with brief regional information on developments in North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

Key highlights:

·         The new era of digital media is undermining the traditional media’s privileges and their grip on their monopolies. They are now all jockeying for a position in the new Internet economy. Sectors include TV and radio broadcasting, newspaper publishers, film and video industries.

·         The most popular online entertainment services include gambling/gaming, online dating, online music, online video and social media.

·         Social networking now accounts for around 10% of the time consumers spend online.

·         The increasing popularity of online video across different mediums will lead to a greater demand for quality content delivery networks (CDN) that can deliver and distribute content effectively.

·         Online dating has been a popular web activity since around the year 2000 – and a profitable one as well. By 2009 it was generating almost $1 billion in revenue.

·         Already the biggest in the world, China’s online gaming market still shows considerable potential for growth.

·         TVs and game consoles are becoming available that can stream movies and content straight from the Internet – examples include a flat panel display developed by Vizio and Microsoft’s Xbox360.

·         Many countries are switching from analogue to digital, as government mandated switch over dates approach.

Digital TV penetration worldwide – 2006; 2009; 2012

(Source: BuddeComm based various industry sources, 2009)

·         Although the pay TV market in Latin America is still small, the long-term outlook is positive, particularly in view of convergence opportunities, the gradual upgrading of cable networks from analogue to digital, and the efforts to reduce signal piracy throughout the region.

·         Improvements in fibre infrastructure and the emergence of wireless broadband access and 3G mobile systems are finally opening the way for digital media in Africa.

·         Developments in Australia have primarily centred on video-based media and IPTV and mobile media such as mobile music and TV and social networking.

Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year.