Abstract
Publication Overview
This annual report offers a wealth of information on the worldwide development
of advertising and marketing in the digital era. It includes information on
online entertainment, digital broadcasting, IPTV and home media centres and
offers analyses, statistics, forecasts and trends. It provides insight into
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 case study on
Google. Valuable insights and statistics for the emerging Internet
entertainment market of China are also provided. Brief regional information on
developments in North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and
Asia Pacific are also provided.
Subjects covered include:
Key online entertainment services and statistics;
- Social media;
- Online video;
- IPTV;
- Home media centres and home networking;
- Impact on traditional media;
- Internet Media Companies including case study on Google;
- Internet entertainment in the emerging market of China;
- Brief regional overviews.
Executive Summary
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.
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