Growth in the consumer ebooks segment – once thought to be the greatest threat to print – continues but has slowed, as print remains the dominant format overall.
Although the business-to-business (B2B) market typically outpaces underlying economic growth, this tendency will not sustain over the current forecast period. Typically, this segment is bolstered by trade shows, but fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to flat growth to 2024.
Despite global cinema revenue reaching US$45.1bn in 2019, the global cinema market is expected to contract sharply due to COVID-19 in 2020. Cinema revenue will likely fall by -65.6% in 2020, as many screens are forced to close and major Hollywood releases are delayed.
Video and smartphones remain key market drivers, and demand for data-hungry content plus improvements in broadband speed and capacity will drive global data consumption to 4.9 quadrillion MB in 2024.
The smartphone continues to be the device of choice for accessing the Internet, with more than 5.1bn connections worldwide by 2024. In emerging markets, a smartphone with a broadband connection is and will be many consumers’ first and only means of Internet access.
Streaming remains the industry’s headline story, and while the segment as a whole will continue to expand despite disruption from COVID-19, the rate of growth will slow as streaming products reach less-developed markets at necessarily lower price points.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, circulation revenue was already trending downward, and the crisis will cause continued declines in newspapers and consumer magazine revenue. Global revenue will fall by -14.3% in 2020, with consumer magazines to be hit hardest.
The global out-of-home (OOH) market will see severe impact from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but the sector is resilient and is set to bounce back in 2021. Overall, the sector is experiencing a shift as digital OOH (DOOH) enters the mainstream and drives profound change, and will also drive the industry’s recovery from 2021.
As new over-the-top (OTT) services challenge the global dominance of streaming giants, consumer viewing habits will shift as global spending on TV content climbs throughout the forecast period.
The global traditional TV market will decline over the forecast period, as consumers continue to make the move to streaming and on-demand services.
The ongoing shift in consumer viewing habits – driven by the migration to streaming and heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic – is leading advertisers and broadcasters to rethink how they market to consumers.
Although the global video games and esports industry continues to enjoy growth across all segments, esports revenue, having passed the US$1bn mark in 2019, will achieve growth at a level unseen in almost any other media and entertainment category.
Despite a slower growth rate than forecasted three or four years ago, the market for virtual reality (VR) continues to grow as the industry overcomes technical challenges and becomes more established.