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Digital Media New World Order

According to a commentary in the Hollywood Reporter, the new world order of media and entertainment is taking shape in 2006, and the competition for consumer and advertiser spending will never be the same.

It will all be about a flood of fast, fun, alternative distribution for TV programs, movies, video games and print on first-generation portable video players, video cell phones and digital cable and satellite set-top boxes.

In the process, the industry will struggle with new dilemmas: how to slice and dice existing content for on-demand access without losing its integrity and how to create new forms of advertising that can tag along.

Like never before, media and entertainment players are reinventing themselves right before our eyes, driven by an unprecedented marketplace collision of the mass penetration of new digital broadband services and a willingness by content providers to provide access to their existing and new products in untested ways.

Combined, these forces act as a great leveler, making such distinctions as new and old media, giant and upstart, video and audio, cable and satellite, text and print less important and effective.

The proprietary boundaries such as restricted pricing and access that once protected all of media's giants -- from set TV program schedules and boxoffice film openings to paid online portals and retail software -- have fallen away.

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