This week the reading we read ‘A world of Differences’, a report that analysed entertainment and media (E&M) companies, and what’s happening in the world.
There were a few really interesting points that I took away which sparked my interest.
“The trend towards free media” – There are a plethora of competing sites and companies, both free of charge or pay-to-use that are working to gain our usership. In a world where, sadly, money dictates every decision and is always relevant, of course some people would choose to for example, read the news from a free source instead of paying for a newspaper subscription.
The report also separates changes in the industry into “Macroeconomic”, “Technological” and “Social” trends, thus better differentiating and narrowing down a focus point for analysis.
The use of graphs to show each country’s aggregated E&M spending was interesting, concluding that “the more youthful populations are those with higher E&M”. So What does this mean? Our behaviours as consumers, especially as young consumers of media means we by and large set the trends, therefore more demand meaning more growth. This is why it is SO important, and why so many companies place such emphasis on understanding how the younger generation, younger than me, utilise and connect with the digital. They came to the conclusion that E&M spending is influenced by the age of a country’s population not it’s wealth, which I found really interesting.
The future:
We know how important immediacy is in our society, especially when it comes to the immediacy of entertainment and media such as Netflix and other on demand entertainment services. So it is no wonder that competing cable incumbents such as Foxtel are fighting back, providing their customers with “on demand” options, where you can utilise their service from a number of devices and when you want.
My takeaway:
Like last week’s reading and lecture by Astrid, I can see how we are being shown about the future, and how it is all slowly coming together…Although I am slightly concerned and severely apprehensive and apprehensive when it comes to the future of technology and the repercussions, but I have 10 weeks left so I better just suck it up!