Entertainment & Media Outlook 2018-2022

Ubiquitous connectivity

Ongoing investments in technology and broadband network infrastructure have expanded coverage, capacity, bandwidth and connectivity to the point where consumers and their devices are always connected and always on. These developments support an ever-expanding supply and diversity of content, experiences and applications that can be delivered directly and digitally to users.

The mobile consumer

As spending grows, the connected mobile device is rapidly becoming consumers’ primary means of accessing E&M content and services across virtually all markets worldwide. That makes it imperative for content creators, distributors and platforms to develop the means to reach and monetise mobile consumers directly through mobile experiences rather than through traditional sales and distribution approaches.

Need for new sources of revenue growth

Many sectors of the E&M ecosystem are showing weak, stagnant or even declining growth. Players will find that the streams that nourished them in previous years will not be flowing with the same force. Simultaneously, telecommunications companies face stagnant core businesses and are looking at E&M as a growth driver of products, services and experiences. Every company in the E&M ecosystem is racing to develop new revenue streams, especially in digital.

Value shift to platforms

As entertainment and media has digitized, social media and technology platforms have become the primary beneficiaries of users’ growth in time and spending. The platforms have shown greater effectiveness in monetizing across advertising, subscriptions and transactions. These platforms are playing a more prominent role in content creation. In parallel, many publishers, especially in video, are investing in their own platforms and seeking to become more proficient in technology, data and digital delivery.

Personalization

Consumers no longer want one-size-fits-all E&M experiences determined by network programmers or publishing editors. Neither do advertisers. As a result, data analytics and technology that can support better decision-making with respect to content, distribution, user experience and monetisation have become increasingly critical to success in the E&M marketplace.

Content trust

Is your content safe?

Broadly speaking, advertisers are raising questions about the quality, safety and appropriateness of the content they advertise against. As algorithms serve up millions of ads without human intervention – sometimes accompanying videos with objectionable content – major companies have grown concerned about brand safety on some of the leading platforms.

Audience trust

Is your audience who you say it is?

Today’s technology offers the tantalising prospect of ultraprecise audience measurement: who is watching and for how long? But legitimate questions have been raised as to how much faith can be put in the measurement. A series of media and academic reports have highlighted the presence of bots, or fake accounts, on social media platforms. Multiple investigations have shown that it is quite easy for people to create personas – even entire organisations – on social media platforms that don’t exist in real life.

Data trust

Are you taking appropriate and proper care of the data that consumers entrust to you?

As more E&M companies enter direct commercial relationships with customers, whether selling products inside video games or signing up subscribers to OTT apps, they are assuming more responsibility for the protection of credit card numbers. In an age of large-scale hacks, it is natural for users to question whether it makes sense to transact so freely. At the same time, the ability of app developers to access the profiles of tens of millions of social media account holders has highlighted the dilemma of data protection – even in instances when users may have accepted terms and conditions that allow for the sharing of data.

Monetization trust

Are your investments paying off?

Again, e-commerce and online advertising and marketing offer the potential for transparency and direct measurement. But questions about how audiences are measured, or the length of time people actually viewed an online video counted as a view, or what percentage of viewers are skipping ads, or whether a publisher is delivering the promised audience to an agency, or whether an agency is delivering the promised audience to a client have not been answered to everyone’s satisfaction.

Ecosystem trust

Is your company or industry good for society?

This may seem like a philosophical question. But, again, within the past year, we have seen significant questions raised about the use of television networks as vehicles for propaganda, about the pervasiveness of hate speech on discussion boards and about the use of social media platforms by parties that sow division and ethnic strife. To a degree, this is nothing new. But the sheer size, reach and utility of today’s media platforms are making them a target once again.