Digital media is now the largest entertainment market. The explosion of digital media has been nothing less than spectacular. It is revolutionizing the way people stay in contact with each other and the way they consume and enjoy their digital entertainment. The traditional landscape is trembling under these changes.

Revenue in the “Digital Media” market amounts to US$1,124.5 million in 2016. The market’s largest segment is the segment “Digital Games” with a market volume of US$422.8 million in 2016. From a global comparison perspective, it is shown that most revenue is generated in the United States (US$33,074.7 million in 2016).

Video streaming
Until now services offered by ISPs have failed to attract large paying-user bases – in early 2015 there were only around 128 million subscribers globally, and some 800,000 in Australia.
By far the largest growth in video entertainment comes from user-generated content services such as YouTube, Facebook and a whole new range of services of short, and even super-short, videos. Catch-up TV would be the second largest category.

All of the above will significantly influence video streaming developments and future models will therefore have to be substantially different from those of today. The best way to envisage this is to look at the smart devices which provide ‘app-like’ interfaces to new content services that supply instant streaming.
It is estimated that downloading and streaming of video now constitutes well over 50% of all regular online video usage, and that this will only increase over time.

Social Networks
In 2015 there are more than 13.8 million Facebook users, 2.7 million Twitter users and 3.3 million LinkedIn users; and some of them access these sites several times a day. This rise in users continues the trend from 2009, when Australians interacting with brands via social networks jumped by more than 60%. Increased use of mobile broadband through mobile devices is driving consumer uptake, with many businesses now also investing in social media and also expecting a return.

Gaming and Gambling
As broadband speed and capacity increases a completely new range of gaming applications will enter the market over the next decade. Not needing a console has increased access and created distinctions between console and casual gamers. Games are now integrated with other online services such as music and movies. The video and computer games industry in Australia had a bumper year in 2014, with sales hitting $2.46 billion (iGEA).

Music Industry
With the 20% or so of Australians who actually pay for downloaded music, many others are using the online music apps like YouTube and other cloud-based sites to obtain their music. Cloud-based music has been the major growth area in recent years. It is expected that the other 80% of users who are using digital media online will try it and then some will continue to use these services with some service providers giving cheap or free complimentary access for a couple of months and access to over 20 million tracks, some interspersed occasionally with ads.

Newspaper and Book Publishing
The newspaper publishers are among those hardest hit by the massive changes that are taking place as a consequence of rapidly changing digital technologies. By way of contrast the book industry has a golden future. More books are read than ever before and new (international) book markets open up every year. Writers have existed and have been in demand for 5,000 years and they are not going to die out any time soon. Nor will there be any decrease in demand for more book content.