Digital authority Jeffrey Cole reveals global media usage survey
Thursday 2 April 2009
The impact of digital technologies will be far greater than the introduction of TV, said Jeffrey Cole in yesterday’s Digital Lifestyle keynote.
As director of the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future, Cole has supervised a 10-year study into people’s digital behaviour in 30 countries. His conclusion is that TV will be the only traditional media industry to grow in the digital age, with film and music likely to be the highest profile casualties.
Cinema attendance has slumped worldwide from 90 million visits a week in 1946 to 21 million in 2007. Meanwhile, the sales notched up by the most successful music album plummeted from 4.9 million to 2.4 million – between 2005 and 2008 alone.
However, no industry will die, Cole said — and TV could grow dramatically if it embraces the mobile space. He then painted a picture of a future in which small-screen mobile TV accompanied people everywhere. Mobile TV is set to become the default time-filler in the way that ringing friends and relations now is, he suggested.
For some, the future is already here, Cole observed, citing teenagers’ media consumption as an indicator of things to come. Most do not read a printed newspaper, and many will never own a watch, he said. And since 2005, they have been willing to pay for online content, even though this is now declining because of ad-supported services.
Advertising, not subscription, would continue to be the dominant commercial model, Cole said, adding that it is also imperative that TV continues to move away from scheduled programming.
This and more in the MIPTV daily News, online soon!
As director of the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future, Cole has supervised a 10-year study into people’s digital behaviour in 30 countries. His conclusion is that TV will be the only traditional media industry to grow in the digital age, with film and music likely to be the highest profile casualties.
Cinema attendance has slumped worldwide from 90 million visits a week in 1946 to 21 million in 2007. Meanwhile, the sales notched up by the most successful music album plummeted from 4.9 million to 2.4 million – between 2005 and 2008 alone.
However, no industry will die, Cole said — and TV could grow dramatically if it embraces the mobile space. He then painted a picture of a future in which small-screen mobile TV accompanied people everywhere. Mobile TV is set to become the default time-filler in the way that ringing friends and relations now is, he suggested.
For some, the future is already here, Cole observed, citing teenagers’ media consumption as an indicator of things to come. Most do not read a printed newspaper, and many will never own a watch, he said. And since 2005, they have been willing to pay for online content, even though this is now declining because of ad-supported services.
Advertising, not subscription, would continue to be the dominant commercial model, Cole said, adding that it is also imperative that TV continues to move away from scheduled programming.
This and more in the MIPTV daily News, online soon!
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