As Media students, I think most of us tend to get caught up in our creative sides. We love to take an idea and run with it, or take an idea and sit on it and never do anything. In general, we (or at least I) don’t spend much time thinking about the nitty gritty of the media industry. Nevertheless, I thought this article was interesting, and I was pretty pleased that it wasn’t portraying the future of our industry as a barren wasteland in which no one ever makes any money.

The article talks of five shifts in the future of entertainment and media, the first being a move towards a more youthful demographic. Companies are moving away from producing for older markets with higher levels of disposable income, towards youth markets whose levels of spending on E&M is rising. For some years now, youth have been seen to be ‘cheap’ when it comes to E&M – we are unwilling to pay for products when we can get them for free online. This falsity has always annoyed me; we are willing to pay for things, but we don’t want to be ripped off (Australian TV prices (e.g. Foxtel at $80 a month to watch Game of Thrones) vs US prices are a good example). However, we are guilty of downloading things not easily available to us (e.g. US television shows that air months, or years later in Australia). It’s good to see that companies are recognising the youth market as viable consumers.

Shift 2 talks about creative content, and it’s importance in the market. Tying into Shift 4, Geography, Netflix says that locally produced content is its future. I love this. With streaming services like Stan and Presto already using locally produced content as a tool to gain more subscribers, it’s important that international companies do the same thing. This will give Australian consumers access to great US and other international content, as well as supporting the local industry.