Digital Lifescapes

Mobile communication service providers have started to build out fifth-generation (5G) wireless network infrastructure. There are many use cases for this new technology. What benefits will 5G bring to the media and entertainment industry? One example: 5G will empower cloud-based entertainment on the go. While 2019 has seen the first deployments of 5G in the consumer domain, 2020 will be the year of large scale commercial 5G rollouts across the globe. As a result of this network investment, 5G generated revenues for cloud-based entertainment services are forecast to rise rapidly. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, 5G alone will contribute revenues of almost $1.9 billion to cloud gaming -- accounting for 42 percent of overall cloud gaming revenues, as well as $67.5 billion in cloud video -- accounting for 31 percent of cloud video revenues by 2024. 5G Edge Computing Market Development "These numbers underline the growing demand for cloud-based en...

The ongoing commitment to spend more on advertising is primarily driven by legacy marketers. The majority of CMOs in these organizations have difficulty embracing progressive methods of market development, such as digital content marketing. They continue to explore new media but stay within their comfort zone. As traditional advertisers witnessed the growth in smartphone use, they've shifted their digital ad spend -- such as display and search advertising -- to focus more on mobile devices. Most types of online advertising growth are now due to mobile internet use, which will overtake online desktop use. Digital Advertising Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the total spend on digital advertising is forecast to reach $520 billion by 2023 -- that's rising from $294 billion in 2019. That's a CAGR of 15 percent over the next 5 years; driven by the adoption of AI-based programmatic advertising to deliver highly targete...

Since the first online banner advert in 1993, advertising on digital platforms has seen significant developments. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, in 2013 digital advertising revenues overtook cable TV advertising within the U.S. market. The process by which advertisements reach their target audiences has advanced from being the advertiser and publisher, and now includes a plethora of ecosystem stakeholders in between. That said, it's not an easy task to fully understand the workings behind current digital advertising value networks. There's a significant degree of ongoing consolidation, as operations begin to become siloed. Digital Advertising Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, digital advertising spend will grow by an 18 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years -- rising from $184 billion in 2017 to $420 billion in 2022. This include advertising spend across mobile, desktop,...

When implemented correctly, the potential benefits that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can bring to the digital advertising industry are significant. Enhancing a digital advertising platform's ability to efficiently target the correct audience, while detecting fraudulent publisher activities, would be a huge advantage. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the use of AI for advertising purposes overlaps with the development of other applications. For instance, as bots and digital assistants are mechanisms for human to machine communications, the opposite may also be true -- where the AI machine, aware of the user's interests, can be used as a tool for brand advertising. However, the applications of AI in advertising extends beyond this use case. AI for Advertising Market Development That said, what's primarily driving the demand for AI apps in advertising? The Juniper Research study found that advertisers will lose an estimated $19 billio...

In-flight entertainment has been available on long-haul flights for several decades and increasingly, in an age where permanent Internet connectivity is becoming the norm, in-flight Wi-Fi is now becoming a standard service offering for airlines. Digital transformation, developing communications technology, the promise of ancillary revenues for airlines and increasing demands from passengers to stay connected at all times are driving the deployment of new services across both large airlines and smaller low-cost carriers. In-Flight Internet Access Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research , commercial aircraft adopting in-flight Wi-Fi services will reach 14,419 globally by 2022 -- that's up from an estimated 5,243 in 2017. This will mean that over half of the global fleet of commercial passenger airplanes will offer these services in 2022, compared with just under a quarter this year. This increase will be driven by the impact of th...

Mobile World Congress is the world's largest gathering for the mobile industry. What's top-of-mind for many vendors this week -- as the economy in China evolves, where are the greatest growth opportunities? China is the largest digital media market, by far, due to the adoption of smartphones and the Mobile Internet. Canalys estimates that in 2016, China reached 476.5 million unit shipments, growing year-on-year at 11.4 percent. This was a dramatic improvement over the annual growth rate of just 1.9 percent in 2015. Moreover, shipments in China reached 131.6 million units in Q416, which is the highest single quarter total in history, accounting for nearly a third of worldwide smartphone shipments. Canalys research shows that, in 2016, Huawei took the top spot in the market with 76.2 million shipments, a small lead ahead of runner-up Oppo with 73.2 million units, followed by Vivo in third place at 63.2 million units. Smartphone Market Development The smartphone market rec...

Digital entertainment will continue to evolve in 2017. In the mobile space, online video gaming has changed, with a move away from longer form Role Playing Games (RPG), to shorter games which allow greater interaction with other players. That said, casual games maintain their dominance in this industry. However, there's a significant rise in popularity of titles such as 'Clash Royale' which are competitive, short-form games that also integrate the idea of clans or teams of players. Aided by the adoption of popular franchises onto mobile devices, 2016 has seen strong growth in the number of games accessed on smartphones. Both new, optimized titles -- in terms of engagement and revenue generation -- and reworked classics have proved to be a hit with consumers. Video Game Market Development A new study from Juniper Research has found that revenues from the global digital games market are set to reach the $100 billion milestone by the end of this year. That's an ama...

All this week, industry analysts and numerous other attendees will arrive in Las Vegas to participate in CES 2017. It's the annual event where people come from all over the world to learn about the latest tech gadgets. Truly, there's many parts of the industry that are still growing. Consumer spending on digital devices, services, and content will reach $3.4 trillion worldwide in 2020, rising 4.7 percent annually from 2015, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Their forecast is from a newly launched research program, "Consumer Spending Priorities: Tech and Services," which provides a holistic view of all related spending across the consumer electronics sector. Consumer Electronics Market Development That said, the share of consumer digital spending on devices will fall from 28 percent in 2015 to only 22 percent by 2020, while consumer spending on digital content will rise at a rate of 12.6 percent. However, ...

Enterprise-wide implementations of audience engagement software and services for advertising, marketing, sales and services continue to increase by 5 to 6 percent every six months, reaching nearly 20 percent according to the latest market study by Technology Business Research (TBR). Over 50 percent of enterprises are either in proof of concept or scaling up their digital technology deployments. According to the TBR assessment, digital technology is mainstream and it's already changing the way that businesses interact with their online stakeholders. Digital Media Market Development Traditional media continues the move to digital formats, driving a significant shift in spending. Digital native service providers -- such as Google -- are capturing billions in advertising spend as organizations pivot from traditional print and television formats into more effective online engagement. Newspapers everywhere have suffered greatly from the shift to the digital economy. Meanwhile, T...

While a variety of devices have been in development for virtual reality (VR) platforms, the technology has blossomed in recent years due to developments in sensor technologies and the availability of lower-cost solutions -- such as mobile. Today, there are a growing number of diverse industries that stand to benefit from the development of emerging applications -- as an example, from entertainment to medical and military use cases. There will be nearly 60 million smartphone VR headsets shipped in 2021, that's an increase of around 240 percent on an expected 16.8 million this year, according to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research. VR Market Development Trends However, according to the Juniper assessment, the lower price of these devices means they will only account for 7 percent of the total hardware revenue. While millions of consumers are already using VR on smartphone-based devices --such as Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR -- software developer...

Over-the-top (OTT) video adoption continues to disrupt the legacy pay-TV market. In its latest analysis on the online streaming media adapter market, ABI Research examined the impact of new lower-priced devices and the mounting pressures within the global consumer electronics industry. People now have many ways to stream video entertainment. Moreover, the ongoing introduction of new, cost-efficient devices with innovative functionality has the capability to swiftly change the competitive landscape. Meanwhile, traditional pay-TV providers continue to increase service subscription and set-top box rental prices. "The rise of Google's Chromecast devices, along with the Amazon Fire TV Stick, generated interest in the stick or dongle form factor, but these successes speak more toward pricing than design," says Michael Inouye, principal analyst at ABI Research . Streaming Media Market Development In China, according to the ABI assessment, the streaming media stick form f...

Video entertainment viewing in the typical American household has evolved. Gone are the days where broadcast television gained the lion's share of consumer attention. Meanwhile, legacy pay-TV services have struggled to keep pace with shifting customer preferences and numerous alternative lower-cost offerings. Average monthly spending on subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services among U.S. broadband households increased from $3.71 per month in 2012 to $6.19 per month in 2015, according to the latest market study by Parks Associates. Parks examined new business models emerging from the increasing consumption of over-the-top (OTT) content in the American video entertainment market -- including new experiments in content windowing. How the OTT Trend Disrupted the Market "Multiple content players have held onto traditional content windowing strategies for years, but OTT technologies and emerging business models have finally forced these companies to experiment with new w...

More American marketers will shift their focus to mobile-first marketing channels in 2016. The adoption of responsive web design methodologies means that content looks appealing on all internet user devices -- personal computer, media tablet or smartphone. Moreover, now that more than three-quarters of the U.S. mobile phone owner population uses a smartphone, it's possible to reach and engage just about every demographic group via multimedia content. Case in point: comScore released data reporting the key trends in the U.S. smartphone industry for November 2015. Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 43.1 percent OEM market share, while Google Android led as the number one smartphone platform with 53.1 percent platform market share. Facebook ranked as the top individual smartphone software application, and Google continues to rank highly in the overall top apps list. That being said, many people view web content on their mobile devices. Smartphone OEM Market S...

Digital video entertainment continues to gain momentum around the globe, as more consumers embrace high-definition broadcast television services -- many will also choose to connect their TV sets to the internet and subscribe to over-the-top video streaming offerings. Based on forecasts for 138 countries, the number of digital TV homes will increase by more than 1 billion between 2010 and 2020 to reach 1.65 billion -- that's up by 180 percent, according to the latest worldwide market study by Digital TV Research . The total digital television households will climb by 134 million during 2015. According to their assessment, global digital TV penetration will reach 97.6 percent of television households by the end of 2020 -- that's up from 40.5 percent at the end of 2010 and 67.2 percent at the end of 2014. By 2020, 93 countries will be completely digital, compared with only 17 at end-2014. It's now forecast that about 124 countries will have more than 90 percent digital...

The mobile digital marketing channel continues to gain momentum across the globe. The annual worldwide advertising spend on mobile devices is now forecast to reach $105 billion by 2019 -- that's up from an estimated $51 billion this year. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research , this increase in advertising spend is in large part attributable to an attitude shift among major brands and national retailers who are now embracing mobile as a core channel for consumer engagement. Juniper argues that the ability of smartphones to deliver targeted, personalized and timely advertising -- aligned with the media-stacking trends among savvy consumers -- means that mobile advertising offers both high visibility and relatively higher response rates for the big brands. Regional Growth and Other Key Factors The research findings also observes an uplift in advertising spend within the Far East region, fueled by the dramatic adoption of mCommerce retail activity within ...

Across the digital content arena, there has been a gradual transition from the pay-per-download model to a month-to-month or annual subscription. This transition is very apparent in the mobile space, where the majority of applications are now free at the point of download. The overall value of the global digital content market will reach $154 billion annually by 2019 -- that's an increase of nearly 60 percent on 2014, according to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research. Their new research findings observed that mobile and online games would account for the largest share of content sales -- 38 percent of cumulative revenues -- with game formats continuing to transition from physical to digital. According to Juniper's assessment, the success of platforms such as Valve's Steam -- which now has over 125 million active accounts worldwide -- is a key driver in this evolution. Meanwhile, revenues from game consoles and handheld devices are diminishing as pla...

Ever since the first clickable banner ad was produced in 1993, advertising on digital platforms has evolved. The growth in digital advertising has been aided by several improvements, such as programmatic media and big data. The potential for targeted, personalized advertising -- enabled by new mobile device adoption -- is a key area of interest for digital marketers. Advertising spend on smart watches will reach $68.6 million by 2019, that's up from an estimated $1.5 million this year, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research . The study found that market growth will be fueled by the entrance of high-profile brands, such as Apple, into the smart watch arena, combined with the ongoing mainstream acceptance of wearable technology. Juniper believes that the emergence of an additional mobile screen would stimulate interest among advertisers. However, until a significant user base is reached, most ad-spend is likely to take the form of ad-hoc marketing campaigns. ...

Historically, the Grammys event is an annual celebration of songwriter and performing artist accomplishments during the course of the year. It's not usually an event where copyright reform becomes the focal point, or where honorees air their concerns about the state of the music industry. But times have changed. The transition to digital content production and online streaming distribution has disrupted various parts of the entertainment sector -- with the overall recorded music market still adapting to the big changes that have impacted the prior status-quo. The consumption of music on mobile devices is the key trend to watch. It's a huge market. Strategy Analytics says that the total global mobile music market value will grow from $12.8 billion in 2014 to reach $21.3 billion by 2021. New growth will be driven by the combined effect of the dominance of mobile music streaming -- both paid subscription and ad-funded free listening -- in all markets, the transition from phy...

Once again, the recorded music industry is at a pivotal juncture in their evolution. The recent recording artist royalty disputes with Spotify has intensified concern about the economic viability of streaming music subscription services. The latest market study by Strategy Analytics found that despite continuous growth in adoption of music streaming services, current providers are having difficulty turning music streaming into a profit. Given the ongoing financial challenges with this business model, the resolution is still unclear. "Technology is evolving and changing the way consumers discover, listen to, share, and interact with music, but it is also a significant factor in the decline of music industry revenues. Many artists feel they are under compensated by streaming services, but as currently structured the underlying economics won't support higher royalty payments by these service, particularly for free ad-supported services" said Leika Kawasaki, analyst at St...

Media tablet ownership among American consumers is on the rise, and growing at a faster rate than that of any other connected consumer electronics device. According to the NPD Group, as of the third quarter of 2014, there were 109 million tablets in use -- that's up by 35 million from last year. "Now that the tablet market is unmistakably past the early-adopter stage we are able to gain visibility into what the user base is still doing with their devices, and in this case it's often video focused activities," said John Buffone, executive director at NPD Group . Moreover, 55 percent of U.S. tablet users report leveraging a video feature of their device. This includes video calling; taking, posting, and uploading videos -- as well as watching video from a streaming service or app from a TV channel or pay TV provider. Video feature usage is even more prominent among younger consumers. Two-thirds (67 percent) of tablet users aged 18-34 use these video features compa...