We love market research. There, we’ve said it. Chasers are fascinated by forecasts and enthralled by estimates. We’re always skeptical about the predictions, but enjoy ‘em nevertheless.
We are especially taken by this hearty piece from The Hollywood Reporter. Don’t mind the misleading title, “Convergence Fulfilled,” because no media company we can think of is satisfied with its cross-platform initiatives. The piece is valuable to Chasers because of its thorough review of consumer spending habits and predictions of changing consumption patterns for news and other content.
Annual consumer spending on all forms of U.S. media and entertainment — from television, home video, print and boxoffice movies to music and the Internet — will approach $253 billion by 2009. By that time, consumers, advertisers, service providers and institutional end-users will spend more than $1.1 trillion on all U.S. communications, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson’s recently released five-year industry forecast. Consumers will media-multitask an average of 11 hours daily and 78 hours weekly by then, the New York-based media-merchant bank adds.
Globally, PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts that consumer and end-user spending on all media and entertainment will grow 7.8% annually to more than $1.3 trillion in 2009. PWC predicts that U.S. consumer spending on media and entertainment will grow at an average annual rate of 5.8% to $475 billion in 2009, with domestic advertiser spending projected to grow 5.3% annually to $216 billion during that span….
The big unknown, though, is how quickly out-of-home use of portable interactive devices will overshadow long-dominant in-home use.
You’ll all agree with the article’s main point: Media companies need leaders with vision and the conviction to make wrenching choices during a period of extreme turbulence:
The lines separating content forms, distribution platforms, producers, consumers, companies and nations also will be blurred and even shattered, and the fortunes and existences of traditional and new-media companies will become intertwined as their content, marketing and technology savvy are fused to define an interactive media era under the leadership of entrepreneurial executives.
That “intertwining” relationship is possible only if traditional-media companies take risks, make smart acquisitions and invest in the technology and people who can elevate their online game. For media companies, this means don’t get stuck playing the “how big can we crank this profit margin” game just like in print. There’s a role for number crunchers, but the dreamers need a space in the sandbox, too.
