An important trend of our time is the transformation of the media towards the entertainment industry.
The transformation of the media towards the entertainment industry is an objective process associated with an increase in the share of audiovisual and electronic media in the media industry as a whole and in the budget of a modern person's free time. This is not least due to the consequences of technological progress and the digital revolution, which have increased the number of technological platforms for playing entertainment content. Several reasons explain the inevitable integration of the media and entertainment industries.
Firstly, this is the desire of advertisers to reach a mass audience, which has always been attracted by entertainment "spectacles". The media as an industry for organizing advertisers' access to target audiences turned out to be among the service industries serving the market economy itself, oriented to mass consumption. Mass media – the yellow press, universal radio and television channels – have become an excellent means of recreation for huge audiences, and it is in these media that the volume of serious journalistic materials is minimal. Today, entertainment programs make up the bulk of TV content in almost all countries of the world. Based on this, we can say that TV is the main channel for delivering entertainment for the vast majority of the population.
Secondly, the introduction of advertising into media content. This could not but have an impact on the journalistic texts with which she coexisted in the press, on radio and TV. As a result, the visual expression and entertainment of journalism increased, which began to increasingly entertain the audience. For many consumers, advertising performed primarily an entertainment function, and, competing with it for the audience's attention, journalistic texts began to adapt to the laconic, expressive, but simplistically entertaining advertising language.
Third, the emergence in Western Europe, and then in many other parts of the planet, a "welfare state"– a socially oriented state that guarantees citizens respect for basic human rights, a certain level of consumption, and a high level of social protection. Along with other forms of social protection, the state – influenced by the struggles of the trade union movement and leftist parties – in many countries of the world guaranteed a fixed working week.
Leisure time for employees – both daily and weekly, as well as vacation time – was increased and fixed, which provided recreational enterprises (including the media) with new opportunities for the production of mass entertainment goods. The leveling of the standard of living, at least in the countries that adhered to the concept of the "welfare state", created a massive basis for receiving consumer joys. Consumption for the sake of entertainment has become a natural form of leisure, and the media has not missed its opportunity to offer entertainment.
Fourth, the multiplication of the number of distribution channels for media content as a result of the digital revolution. Competing for audience attention, the media - knowingly or unknowingly – turned to what sells best – in this context, it is entertainment content. This was facilitated by the rapid development of the production of consumer electronics, the emergence of a large number of media carriers – radios, televisions, VCRs, players, etc.
In order to stimulate equipment sales, it was necessary to induce the audience to make new purchases, so the production of entertainment content for home playback since the 1960s. began to take on huge proportions. Today, in a service economy and digital revolution, the entertainment industry has become a form of existence for the consumer industry.
Today, experts identify the most likely areas of digital transformation in media.
Journalism as a Service
In the near future, journalism will become a service. They will pay for access to information, and media platforms and mass media will stop giving content for “thank you”. The first changes to the content delivery model are expected to take place in highly specialized and analytical media. These changes will reverse the perception of the value of information, its status as a commodity, and will improve the methods of disseminating data.
In addition, it will increase the credibility of the information providers. Large educational institutions, knowledge-intensive enterprises, research centers of technology companies will need reliable data sources. All of them will become the main consumers of the next generation of content.
Many agree that media outlets that fail to implement digital information sales technologies run the risk of losing their competitiveness.
Analytics of reactions and behavior
Artificial intelligence-based systems will take user behavior assessment to a new level. In the near future, analytics will no longer be limited to analyzing human actions on a page - programs will know how the user feels.
Neural networks, thanks to the capabilities of machine learning, technologies for recognizing facial expressions, gestures and voice, will be able to accurately predict the user's reaction to content.
It's a little scary, but the machine will know if the person is happy, shocked, angry or crying. In addition, the digital system will predict possible behavior in comments, show audience engagement, loyalty and conversion.
Over time, for "smart" systems, a person will become an open book. This will allow you to give users the information they want, regardless of personal settings.
Growth in the number of "niche" media
Experts predict the rapid development of highly specialized media, due to the growing demand for high-quality and relevant content. Industry experts and professional market players will play a central role in this endeavor.
It is possible that the “niche” media will no longer need journalists as such. At the same time, in creating content, they will rely on opinion leaders, the views of private entrepreneurs and independent experts.
This trend is coupled with changes in the content delivery model. Users will buy information that is selected based on their needs. Personalized subscriptions will make up a large portion of specialized media income.
Real-time information, AI and Big Data
The advancement of AI and big data will revolutionize marketing and ad targeting.
PR people and advertisers, thanks to a better understanding of the needs of the target audience, as well as the analysis of their reaction to content, will be able to create more effective advertising posts, choose the right moment to inform about events, promotions, updating the product catalog, etc.
Digital publishers and products
With the advent of interactive digitization techniques, digital replicas of art and literature, film and music will accelerate.
Many copies will be distributed on the Web by digital publishers and IT departments, which will inevitably appear with the development of the digitalization of the economy.
Media platforms
Previously, social networks, aggregators and search engines of all stripes helped traditional media to attract traffic, but the situation has changed and now platforms are taking an audience.
As much as anyone likes it, this trend will continue. In the future, media platforms will enter a separate business category. Some of them may well develop in R&D and large media corporations.
Naturally, according to the canons of healthy competition, the media will want to deprive social networks and media platforms of dominance in the industry, and they have every opportunity for this.
For their part, platforms and content aggregators, in order to maintain their dominance in the market, will create more and more comfortable conditions for the work of journalists: they will offer modern tools for behavior analytics, “smart” targeting and ample opportunities for monetization.
Chatbots and voice assistants
Voice interface technology is no longer a fantasy. The names Alexa, Cortana, and Siri are all over the place now and make logical associations with such giants as Amazon, Microsoft and Apple.
Soon AI programs like chat fuel will completely replace the FAQ function, and Pandorabots systems will dramatically change the way we search for information on the Web.
Many people, including representatives of the media, will prefer to form questions and search queries by voice rather than typing on the keyboard, because this significantly saves time.
New ad formats. R&D in media
Native advertising is getting better quality, the number of new formats adapted for social networks is increasing: videos, narratives, filmstrips, etc. Business models are also changing, and now there are companies that work according to business models:
- publisher – data broker;
- publisher – IT provider;
- publisher – agency.
The global entertainment and media industry entered 2020 with a growth ceiling. The growth in operating costs outstrips revenue, and the decline in business margins is perceived as a harbinger of an imminent crisis in the media market. To get out of this situation, the market participants combine three tactics:
- simplification of operating models;
- transition to planning the annual budget from scratch;investments in digital business
- transformation – artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, etc.
New generations of consumers demand maximum personalized information, and when and where it is more convenient for them to receive it. The digital is so important today that the line between media and technology has become blurred. This is a challenge both for traditional sources of information and for all-digital startups.In the future, the entertainment industry will be driven by three main trends:
- persnalization – addressing directly to the consumer as a person in conditions of his information overload;
- fragmentation – distribution, even "spreading" of content across all possible distribution channels;
- partnership – the formation of flexible teams in the market, specializing in one thing and uniting to create unique content.
According to some estimates, digital has already exceeded half of revenue in the entertainment sector in 2017 and will continue to grow to almost 62% in 2023. At that time, the volume of the world mass media market itself could reach $ 2.6 trillion against $ 2.1 trillion in 2018.
The key task of analysts from Accenture called drawing up a clear plan for the digitalization of the company and defining its model: whether it be a cross-platform service, vertically integrated, or completely digital.
The entertainment and mass media industry has gone through several digital transformations over the past 20 years. In total, they count four such waves:
- the emergence and development of file-sharing systems in the mid-1990s;
- the appearance of the first video streaming services in the early 2000s;
- the growth of mobile traffic and the development of cloud technologies in the late 2000s;
- at the moment, the fourth wave is starting, associated with the introduction of the Internet of Things and the emergence of entire ecosystems around the information provider.
However, new generations of consumers demand information that is maximally personalized, and when and where it is more convenient for them to receive it. The digital is so important today that the line between media and technology has become blurred. This is a challenge both for traditional sources of information and for all-digital startups.
In the future, the entertainment industry will be driven by three main trends:
- personalization – addressing directly to the consumer as a person in the conditions of his information overload;
- fragmentation – distribution, even "spreading" of content across all possible distribution channel;
- partnership – the formation of flexible teams in the market, specializing in one thing and uniting to create unique content.
Many experts agree on one thing: a boom in virtual reality will be a key consequence of the current crisis. The growth of the virtual reality economy is also ranked first by analysts of the Dutch company TrendWatching in the list of “ten consumer trends after the outbreak of COVID-19”.
Top 10 consumer and leisure market trends after the pandemic:
- Shop streaming – broadcasting of the shopping trip; the industry at the intersection of e-commerce, video streaming, VR and social media has experienced a surge in popularity during the quarantine period in China.
- Digital companions are not just smart assistants, but full-fledged virtual friends for communication. Samsung presented the first such project called Neon in January 2020.
- Protective capsules are closed places (for example, shops) with purified air and a general atmosphere of security, which will be psychologically important for people after the quarantine is lifted.
- Video mentors – a tendency to watch video streams not only for the purpose of having fun, but also to improve a foreign language, listen to a lecture, or just listen to a smart person.
- Robot trading is not just online trading, but the use of delivery robots so that the client does not come into contact with anyone alive at all. Robot trading is not just online trading, but the use of delivery robots so that the client does not come into contact with anyone alive at all.
- Mental massage is all sorts of infrastructure to calm the human psyche after being pushed to the brink of news, politics, ecology and overtime over the years, and now finished off by isolation and economic collapse.
- Open data – expanding the range of open information, such as pedestrian traffic, as part of a general trend towards collaboration amid the crisis.
- Additional advice – developing a hobby at your leisure, for example learning how to cook through an online app? Write to the chef and ask for advice, or maybe even buy the right set of ingredients and kitchen tools from him.
- Virtual status – for example, a photo editor that allows you to "try on" a fashionable dress, take a gorgeous picture and show it off on social networks. The editor is, of course, built into the online retailer's app.
The most important event in the leisure industry in connection with the coronavirus pandemic is the decision of Universal studio to develop video streaming. If other Hollywood grandees also follow it, this could signal the general digitalization of the supply of services within the framework of the same old scheme of producer-user relations.
