Digital… Everything is going digital. There was a time when people would read. Now people prefer to watch a view or listen to a podcast. This means the media landscape is changing and it is changing rapidly. But we must remember, that it is not so much content that is changing, but the way we consume information. At the same time, the way we are communicating is changing as well.
But we think there is something lost in the translation. It seems to us that the great works of the past that make us think about philosophical issues are left in the library shelves, replaced by smartphone videos. But this is a topic for another day. In this note, we are simply pointing out some of the recent changes in people’s use of media. The big theme is that TV is shrinking and on-demand video delivered to phones and tablets is on the rise. This is impacting advertising in a big way.
Over your lifetime, the consumption of media and entertainment has already changed drastically.
For Boomers and Gen Xers, the shift has been earth-shattering. Both generations will remember a time before mainstream computing when TV was dominated by the Big Three TV networks (NBC, ABC, and CBS), and newspapers and magazines were the main way to stay in touch with what was happening.
Even millennials have seen fundamental shifts in the consumption of media. After all, they experienced the rise of social media, online news, streaming, and digital video firsthand. Many of them will remember their college getting access to Facebook for the first time, the death of Napster, and the funny sounds their 28.8k modem made as it struggled to successfully download a single image file.
The modern landscape of media is very different than it was back then – and the coming years will see even more prolific changes.
The Future of Media and Entertainment
Today’s infographic comes to us from Raconteur, and it showcases multiple sets of data that help to illustrate the direction that media is heading. This includes the growth rates of various media and entertainment sectors, TV viewing trends, and social media use.
Here are some of the key trends that we found to be compelling:
Annualized Media Sector Growth (Minus GDP Growth) from 2016-2021
| Media sector | Annual Growth (minus GDP growth) |
|---|---|
| Online Video | 6.0% |
| Online Advertising | 4.3% |
| Video Gaming | 2.7% |
| Out-of-home Ads | -1.7% |
| Music | -2.0% |
| TV Advertising | -2.8% |
| Radio | -3.4% |
| Books | -4.5% |
| Magazines | -6.0% |
| Newspapers | -8.3% |
Online video (6.0%), online ads (4.3%), and video gaming (2.7%) are the only sectors growing at a rate faster than GDP growth.
But while digital video use is growing, it’s not going to take over TV anytime soon:
Daily Minutes Watching TV vs. Digital Video
| Year | TV (Minutes watched) | Digital Video (Minutes Watched) |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 245 | 49.5 |
| 2017 | 238 | 54.3 |
| 2018 | 230 | 58.7 |
| 2019 | 222 | 62.5 |
| 2020 | 219 | 65.3 |
Lastly, here are some figures on the future of media and entertainment that are particularly interesting:
- By 2021, Cisco says that 82% of all internet traffic will stem from a digital video
- There will be 26.3 million VR headsets shipped in 2022, up from 100,000 in 2016
- The eSports market will jump 152% in size by 2021
- By 2021, there will be 650 million subscribers to services like Amazon Prime or Netflix
- 5G latency is expected to be 0.001 seconds, which is 15-60x faster than 4G
It’s fair to say that in another decade, media and entertainment will be much less recognizable than what it looks like today.
Article complements of VisualCapitalist.Com
