Global expenditure on entertainment, media to jump to $1.9 trn by '15: Study

Signalling a continued surge in people’s interest in entertainment and media (E&M), the worldwide spending for these services is poised to grow to $1.9 trillion by 2015, with Asia-Pacific region emerging as the second fastest growing region, says a report.

“Over the next five years we forecast that aggregate entertainment and media (E&M) global spending will rise from $1.4 trillion in 2010 to $1.9 trillion in 2015, a 5.7 per cent compound annual (growth) driven by economic growth,” according to PwC’s Global E&M outlook for 2011-2015.

However, a bulk of people spending would shift from traditional media to digital platforms. Currently digital segment accounts for 26 per cent of all spending and the share would grow to 33.9 per cent by 2015.

In terms of region, Asia-Pacific would be the second fastest-growing region after Latin America in terms of E&M spending during the next five years, with a projected 6.5 per cent compound annual increase to $541 billion from $395 billion in 2010.

The report did not mention any specific figure for India. Latin America would grow by 10.5 per cent annually to $109 billion, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) will expand at an annual rate of 5.2 per cent to $614 billion in 2015 and North America will increase by 4.7 per cent annually to $607 billion.

Consumers in today’s high-tech world feel more empowered, and the E&M industry is being forced to create multi-purpose /multi-platform experiences.

“This is a golden age for consumers, who have never had it so good when it comes to accessing premium content (often free) over multiple devices. E&M CEOs are having to adapt business models to capture the shifting nature of consumer demand,” PwC Global Leader (E&M practice) Marcel Fenez said.

“The bottom line is that in order to continue to create quality content, someone has to pay,” he added.

The report predicts that the biggest challenge for entertainment and media companies over the next five years is to turn these “five key consumer attributes — convenience, experience, quality, participation and privilege — into a sustainable business model.