2014 Global Digital Media - Mobile and Online Entertainment Trends

Digital developments continue to direct the future of entertainment

The growth of digital platforms and services has resulted in the global media industry changing irrevocably. What the shareholders in the traditional media sectors often fail to understand is that the game is no longer directed at building up big revenues upon which to build future business models. Instead the focus is now on building large customer penetration numbers on which to start building the new business models. Senior management often understand this but are reluctant to start the transformation process – or they are not supported in the process by their shareholders, who want to protect the traditional revenues for as long as possible – of course, only to fail in the end.

In this rapidly changing economic environment we see that those who are struggling are creating an increasing gap between themselves and the market leaders. Already in books, newspapers and retail we see that the national walls that protect local organisations within traditional models are crumbling. In other words, it is no longer an issue of local market share. It is now about international market share, and the abovementioned gap needs to be measured, or at least to be seen in an international context.

Adding to the globalisation of the media industry are the continual improvements to telecommunications infrastructure such as fibre and 4G network rollouts. In particular the industry is being driven by mobile broadband apps and services. Entertainment apps and services are of particular importance and a large contributor to the consumer uptake of digital media.  Incorporating social networks, online video, digital music, gaming apps and online dating - this sector is dynamic and highly competitive.

Online video streaming and is one of the fastest growing digital formats and a number of key players are coming to the fore - Netflix, which initially operating in the iVoD sector entered the streaming video market and is gaining prominence and expanding internationally.

Improvements in mobile technology and the introduction of smart phones have also assisted the development of mobile TV/video and we can now see it has a bright future ahead.

The music industry was the first sector to be hit by the digital revolution. It was taken completely by surprise – at that time we had little knowledge of the effects of the digitalisation process. The promise of commercialised digital downloads, with Apple’s ubiquitous iTunes at the forefront, has largely failed to offset the record companies’ shrinking sales. Nevertheless the industry has not been standing still and it has taken on a range of new initiatives.

As in many areas of the digital economy, surviving will be a lot harder for smaller, local players. As they fight to carve a niche their ability to forge partnerships with other industries to maximise skills, marketing and distribution capabilities will prove vital. To this end, successful players both at home and abroad are teaming up with telcos and internet service providers to offer bundling deals to customers.

BuddeComm’s new report, Global Digital Media – Mobile and Online Entertainment Trends, provides important insights into the global digital media and entertainment market and includes trends, analyses, statistics and case studies. It provides analyses on the changes impacting upon the media industry and explores the important advertising sector in regards to digital media. It provides statistics and information on the key sectors in this industry including mobile apps; social networks; gaming; messaging; digital music; iVoD; IPTV; Smart TV; online video streaming and mobile TV. 

Examples of key insights:

• The home entertainment industry is currently being transformed worldwide as a result of the increased availability of choice and access via the Internet. Consumers now have the choice of, and the ability to access, an enormous amount of movie and TV series content through online DVD rental, downloading, instant streaming and IPTV.
• Advertising is very important to the media industry and in many cases is the main source of revenue. The direction the advertising industry takes directly impacts on the media sector.
• In February 2014 Whatsapp was purchased by Facebook for $16 billion. Whatsapp delivers daily over 18 billion messages and this might be a key for the developments of a new concept in mobile advertising, a concept where users will be charged, rather than the vendors or their advertising middlemen.
• Adding further competition to the already highly contested online Video-On-Demand sector; Walt Disney and Apple announced in 2014 the launch of a cloud-based service called Disney Movies Anywhere.
• Around a couple of billion online videos are watched worldwide each month.
• Netflix has gone from strength to strength and has captured over 10 million members from international markets. It continues to offer value-add services including a recent foray into Ultra HD video streaming.
• Interesting IPTV developments are taking place with nearly 130 million IPTV subscribers predicted worldwide by the end of 2014.
• Mobile gambling in particular is expected to thrive once the infrastructure is well established. Online and mobile gaming is also one of the most popular online activities - after social networking.

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