TORONTO – The digital and mobile segments stand to make the most revenue in the next five years for Canadian media and entertainment companies savvy enough to capitalize on them, says Tracey Jennings, leader of the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Canadian Entertainment & Media practice.
Referring to the recently released Global Entertainment and Media Outlook, Jennings presented some key findings and trends to the Greater Toronto Area chapter of Canadian Women in Communications on Thursday.
“While there are still significant revenues coming from traditional segments, the biggest movements and highest growth in consumer and advertising spends will come from those who leverage their existing consumers and advertisers and take them into the world of new media enabling consumers to access content on any platform,” she said.
The report says Canada’s high broadband penetration is the main reason for an anticipated 21% compounded growth in Internet advertising through 2012. On-line advertising, keyword search, classified advertising, and online video advertising are predicted to be the fastest growing components. In the mobile market, wireless network upgrades and the emergence of mobile internet access are forecasted to similarly drive mobile advertising opportunities.
The forum also looked at changes in consumer behavior and technology, particularly the impact of consumers’ “anytime, anywhere” demand for content. Jennings said that ‘The Net Generation’ (those under the age of 25), now represent more than 30% of Canada’s population and will continue to drive the industry to tailor digital content and advertising. However, the growth in consumers over the age of 50 may provide a stabilizing influence to this trend as they will continue to rely on more traditional media.
“Yet we cannot lose sight of the growing 50-plus demographic who will continue to consume the media in the format they have become accustomed to. This older generation will balance out the new Net generation – meaning traditional media will continue to be significant. The question now is how advertisers are going to leverage all these different media, combined or stand-alone, to engage the individual customer and their unique media consumption styles.”
Other highlights presented from the report were:
– the overall Canadian entertainment and media market is predicted to stay strong over the next five years, growing at a 5.8% compound annual rate;
– sustainable business practices and corporate social responsibility will become key market drivers;
– the ability to interpret consumer conversation on public forums like message boards and blogs will offer new insight in to consumer attitudes, needs and behaviors;
– the concept of collaborative networks like Hulu will become a defining organizational principle for content companies;
– advertising revenue in the on-line and mobile video game market will see growth of more than 17% by 2012;
– consumer spending on recorded music will continue to decrease, and revenue from digital distribution of music (like single-track downloads) will overtake that of physical distribution (such as albums) by 2011;
– Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) will continue to be among the fastest-growing entertainment and media markets during the next five years.
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2008-2012, is an annual report on the entertainment and media industry for 15 major industry segments across five regions of the globe – the US, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), Asia Pacific, Latin America and Canada.
– Lesley Hunter
