Global Entertainment & Media Outlook
Edition 2020 - 2024
Five-year projection of consumer and advertiser spending data across 14 segments and 53 territories
The Outlook in a time of disruptive change
Pulling the future forward: The entertainment and media industry reconfigures amid recovery
The entertainment and media industry was thrown for a loop by COVID-19. Which countries and sectors are showing the most resilience? What are the implications of reduced advertiser demand? Our latest Outlook, which takes into account the effects of the pandemic, provides the kind of clear insight and data that can help you identify opportunities throughout a rapidly evolving landscape.
Based on all-new advertising and consumer spending data and forecasts for 14 industry segments across 53 territories.
Five priorities shaping companies' strategies
In 2020, the entertainment and media industry absorbed the historic shock of COVID-19, which toppled long-standing business models, amplified existing trends and forged new opportunities. As the global economy shrinks for the first time since 2009, the US$2.1tn industry is forecast to contract in 2020 by 5.6%.
Shifting patterns of consumer behaviour
The pandemic has propelled consumers even faster towards digital behaviours in many areas of their lives, as lockdowns and social distancing have acted as a powerful spur to employ digital tools.
People are using virtual collaboration tools such as Houseparty and Zoom to stay in touch with family and friends, consulting with physicians over video links, and making more use of mobile banking and contactless payment apps. Nowhere has this change been more evident than in media consumption.
Securing growth in defensive times
The K-shaped recovery means market players can’t sit still or expect to reap the same results by taking the same approaches. As a result, innovative E&M companies are identifying and adopting new ways to seek out growth and adapt to consumers’ evolving preferences.
Deals and M&A transactions: Targeting scale and growth
During 2020, the pervasive uncertainty generated by COVID-19 and volatility in equity markets have led to a dearth of investment capital and a decline in M&A activity.
For the first time in recent memory, we’ve lived through a 12-month period with no mega-deals. But there’s been plenty of smaller-scale activity. Just as consumers are constructing their own bundles of content, companies are developing their own bundles of capabilities and assets so they can reduce their exposure to slow growing sectors, meet consumers where they are today and create new opportunities for engagement.
Technology and infrastructure
Technology and infrastructure pave the way for growth In accelerating consumers’ readiness to adopt digital media experiences, the pandemic has also pulled forward the future of technology.
As new technologies enable novel business models and consumer behaviour, they’re opening the way to reconfiguration— and reinvention—by presenting opportunities for rationalisation, efficiency and faster growth.
Regulation and trust: Global polarisation looms
The E&M world faces persistent challenges related to regulation and trust. The ADAPT forces of asymmetry, polarisation and lack of trust find their purest and most powerful expressions through social media and other communications platforms.
The pandemic intensified the existing pressures, increasing the level of polarisation—between countries, within countries, and even within industries. Concerns surrounding data protection, privacy and the veracity of public information remain top of mind.
2020 Outlook perspectives
Consumer habits can take a lifetime to learn – but just a lockdown to lose. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated and amplified ongoing shifts in consumers’ behaviour, pulling forward digital disruption and forcing industry tipping points that wouldn’t have been reached for many years.
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