We knew that entertainment and media were going digital, already. What we did not know is that the US is a maturing market for streaming media: In fact, it does not rank in the top 10 growth markets, which are led by Indonesia, India and Pakistan, according to Price Waterhouse Coopers. Nor did we know just how strong the need will be for "managed advertising," a hands-on social approach.

As PwC describes, record global sales of tablets and smart devices are underlining the rising revenue opportunities from digital delivery of entertainment and media (E&M) content and advertising to increasingly connected and mobile consumers. According to the company's annual Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2012-2016 – an in-depth five-year outlook for global consumer spending and advertising revenues directly related to entertainment and media content – released today, the industry is approaching the ‘end of the digital beginning’ with digital now embedded in business-as-usual and moving to the heart of many E&M companies.

The Outlook forecasts that global E&M spending is expected to rise from $1.6 trillion in 2011 to $2.1 trillion by 2016, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.7%. The U.S. E&M market experienced the largest increase since 2007 with faster growth expected, growing at 5.2% CAGR reaching $597 billion in 2016, from $464 billion in 2011.

The report finds that growth in digital E&M spending will continue to significantly outpace growth in non-digital spending during the next five years. Digital spending is expected to account for 67% of all growth in spending during the next five years, globally. Digital spending in the U.S. is expected to account for 31.5% of all E&M spending in 2016, up from 21.7% in 2011.

“Change in consumer behavior is pervasive and accelerating and the E&M industry is in the front line of this change,” said Ken Sharkey, entertainment, media & communications US practice leader, PwC. “The past uncertainty triggered by the digital migration has given way to a sharper focus of E&M companies on executing their digital strategies. While experimentation will continue, the way forward is becoming clearer as companies focus on identifying, choosing and executing the right business models, organizational structures and developing the skill sets to understand consumer behaviors and motivations in their connected, multi-screen environments.”

According to the Outlook, the challenge ahead is in the implementation of digital strategies and the E&M industry is reshaping itself around three perspectives:

• Understanding the connected consumer – To engage and immerse consumers in the connected multi-screen future, companies need to understand their behaviors and motivations. Data analytics tools are required to mine the mass of customer data. However, consumers’ fears over privacy risk triggering a public and regulatory backlash. PwC believes that avoiding this will require a shift of industry mindset from ‘customer ownership’ to putting the ‘customer in control.’
• New business models to reinvent the value proposition of advertising and content – Digitally-derived insights are now redefining advertising and expanding its value proposition, enabling it to become paid, earned and socialized. This is driving new performance metrics, new roles for agencies and other participants in the value chain and new flexible pricing models.
• Developing organizational models to harness new behaviors and grow revenues in the ‘new normal’ – To date, many E&M businesses have developed digital as an adjacent operating group, with separate infrastructure, solutions and staff. In the ‘new normal,’ this siloed approach no longer works. Companies are now embedding and integrating their digital operations into the main enterprise, driving improved profitability, scalability and innovation. Realizing these benefits means tackling challenges around right, royalties and piracy.

“By embracing digital as the engine of their business and using it to integrate and automate processes from content production to rights management, E&M companies are well positioned to meet the fast changing consumer demands through any channel and format more effectively and drive greater revenue growth than before,” added Sharkey.

Re-invention of advertising in the image of the consumer

According to the Outlook, the rise of unpaid or earned media reflects an innovative new mix of advertising, content and analytics, bringing sweeping change to the roles and business models in advertising. The rise of socialization is feeding into the widely-accepted concept of bought, owned and earned advertising among agencies and advertisers.

A fourth category is emerging – ‘managed’ advertising, which involves the orchestrated use of social media, such as engagement with bloggers. Everything that agencies do for their clients now has an embedded digital component with the attention on measurement shifted towards earned, unpaid media reach and purchasing intentions.

Overall, U.S. advertising is expected to increase at a 5.9% CAGR from $172 billion in 2011 to $229 billion in 2016, enhanced by Olympic and political advertising in 2016. Internet advertising is expected to average 16% CAGR followed by video games, one of the smallest segments, at 11.4% CAGR. Television advertising, the largest segment, is expected to grow at 6.7% CAGR. Out-of-home advertising and cinema advertising are expected to grow by 4.9% and 4.5% CAGR, respectively. Newspaper advertising (-0.2%) is expected to be the only category to decline.

U.S. segment highlights – Recorded music rebound

In the U.S., Internet advertising is expected to continue to outperform all other E&M segments, with double-digit gains of 16% CAGR. Recorded music will rebound with steady expansion projected rising at a 5.5% CAGR to $19.8 billion in 2016 from $15.2 billion in 2011. Digital distribution of recorded music is expected to overtake physical distribution in 2012 and will rise at an 11.7% CAGR to $5.5 billion in 2016 from $3.1 billion in 2011.

Internet access (9.3% CAGR), TV advertising (6.7% CAGR) and TV subscriptions (5.4% CAGR) are set to grow more than 5% compounded annually. Out-of-home advertising (4.9% CAGR), video games (4.1% CAGR), radio (4.1% CAGR), business-to-business publishing (4% CAGR), consumer magazine publishing (1.6% CAGR), consumer and educational book publishing (1.1% CAGR) and filmed entertainment (0.6% CAGR) are expected to generate modest growth. Spending on newspaper publishing (-1.4% CAGR) is expected to decline moderately before it begins to expand in 2016. Overall, U.S. consumer/end-user spending is expected to grow by 3.7% CAGR.