This week’s reading is the report, A World of Differences, by Chris Lederer and Medan Brownlow (above image is from this report). The report outlines the shifts in the global Entertainment and Media (E&M) industry that are occurring/will occur in the next 5 years, and how businesses can strategize in order to make the most of these shifts.
The shifts that the report identifies as particularly influential to Entertainment and Media are: demography, competition, consumption, geography and business models. The report goes through these shifts, providing evidence to arguments, and concludes that Entertainment and Media companies should be aware of these shifts when making plans for the future.
The most interesting thing that I found from this reading was learning about the Entertainment and Media industry in a global context. I was vaguely aware of the growing E&M industries in developing countries, such as Nigeria, and in my Australian Cinema course I learnt about the Chinese film industry, box office and co-productions with Australia, but seeing the growth of places like China and India in comparison to America is pretty amazing. The report notes that although the industry is becoming more global, cultures and tastes are still remaining local. I wonder if that will ever change, and I will be able to watch Kenyan content in Australia, and whether increased globalisation with increase people’s consumption of foreign media, or whether it will continue to push them to seek local content. I’d like to think that in the future more people would know more languages and consume media from around the world more often, or maybe the US will stop being the global force in Entertainment and Media, and instead everyone will be watching Chinese blockbusters at Hoyts 😉 But I suppose there are a lot of sociological reasons why that won’t be the case anytime soon…
