Management Summary
Some key takeouts
Some key takeouts
Catalyst for change:
The crisis has provided an enforced opportunity for consumers to discover new content and investigate new technology. This has meant greater trial of new services, and exploration of the capabilities of connected devices - often those are devices and services already owned and subscribed to. The crisis has been both a catalyst for changes in lifestyle and media consumption and a stimulus for escalating pre-existing trends.
A battle for screen time:
While the early days of the crisis underlined the primacy of television as the go-to medium, now that more consumers have experienced SVOD and other streaming services, the competition that broadcasters face in their battle for screen time has intensified.
Creativity in content has flourished:
Although there has been a hiatus in content production in the short-term, the crisis has fostered new, more agile, approaches to producing certain forms of content that may endure. It has enabled advertising to become more authentic and creative, to think on its feet.
Sports rights revaluated:
The damage to the appeal of sports, particularly football will force a reassessment of the value of sports rights to brands and broadcasters, even when fans return to stadia.
Media owners to reconsider advertising:
While the crisis has stimulated SVOD subscriptions, advertising-funded models for media consumption will remain an essential part of the system. The economic recession will increase many homes’ dependency on free (ad-funded) sources of media) as personal budgets are hit. The challenge though is that the impact of the crisis on the advertising industry will reduce media owner revenue from advertising and increase their dependency on other revenue streams, such as subscriptions. Hybrid funding models and the balance between revenue streams will become even more of a hot topic for media owners.
Local and regional vs global players:
The crisis has further strengthened the global players at the expense of national and regional media owners. Co-operation and collaboration amongst national and regional media groups was already underway before the crisis – on content, on marketing and on ad sales. It is even more of an imperative now.
Rethink outdoor:
The outdoor industry faces significant and long-term restructuring. Greater incidence of homeworking and a shift in balance away from cities will restructure national economies and travel patterns, with greater regional spread of the workforce and less commuting. This presents major opportunities for local economies, but it is a significant concern for city centers reliant on centralized office working and related support industries.
Radio making waves:
Changes in the daily working pattern have impacted radio consumption during the crisis and will continue to do so as the classic structure of the listening day, particularly drivetime, is radically altered. Streaming live radio and podcasts are also having significant impact on listener behavior.
Cinema takes a hit.
New models for the release of movies have been piloted, with for example, direct-to-home release of major movies. However, issues such as the postponement of the latest Bond film forcing Cineword to temporally close all of its 128 cinemas in the UK and Ireland, indicate that the movie industry has major challenges whilst the pandemic persists. Again, a hybrid approach may be the way forward
The challenge of media planning:
Media owners and planners will need to understand and adapt to the implications of post-COVID lifestyle changes. How will media fit into people’s lives? The ‘typical day’ will be even less relevant than it was before.
Crowd searching:
The future for events and live entertainment is particularly unclear. Will attendance eventually return to pre-COVID levels? Is the desire to gather in crowds hard-wired into us or will we see variations by age and vulnerability? Our experts agreed that current experiments with hybrid events (socially distant audiences and streaming to homes) could actually widen long-term options for revenue, opening up events to new audiences.
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