Will 5G Technologies Drive a New Future for Media & Entertainment?

Will 5G Technologies Drive a New Future for Media & Entertainment?Will 5G Technologies Drive a New Future for Media & Entertainment?Contents

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The Emergence of 5G: Welcome to the Wireless-verse

It’s Unlike Anything We Have Seen Before – Ever! 4

Your Mission, Should you Choose to Accept It!

References:

The year 1894 has a special place in our eternal quest for new technologies. Sometime this year, a 20 something Bolognese, Guglielmo Marconi, finally demonstrated that he could ring a bell from across his room, using the first ever working radio transceiver.

Marconi would go on to win the Nobel Prize for Physics as a recognition his discovery and the subsequent studies in the dynamics of the radio waves in 1909. However, one can be sure that even he would have been surprised if a student of future technologies was to predict the impact of his innovation.

Fast forward to 2022, and we find ourselves in world that is increasingly and robustly ‘wireless.’ A few of the major drivers of our civilization, including smartphones, GPS systems, OTT media, infotainment systems – to name but a few – are simply unthinkable without a more modern version of wireless technology – a discovery that is now also accredited to the Indian scientist J. C. Bose.

The Emergence of 5G:
Welcome to the Wireless-verse

Wireless connectivity technologies today help media and entertainment companies collate, create, and distribute their content worldwide. Media content, especially in the post-OTT landscape, is now available at all times, whether it is in the comfort of one’s home, workplace, or while on travel.

However, I feel that things are just looking to start up.

While it has taken more than a century for wireless technology to evolve and mature, the supporting silicon and software solutions have only emerged over the last few decades. The latter have helped realize the aspirations of the media and entertainment industry to distribute multimedia content directly to the individual consumer at a time and location of their choice. Leveraging cellular wireless signals, it is now possible for the viewers to access their preferred content on mobile computing devices, like the ubiquitous smartphone.

The evolution of wireless cellular connectivity, from G to 2G, and onwards to 3G and 4G, is a key element of this progress story. 3G and 4G have been the primary drivers for the transformation of global media consumption patterns, to the extent that about 70 percent of the mobile users today watch videos on smartphones leveraging these technologiesⁱ.

5G technology, with its ultra-low latency, high speed, and unmatched bandwidth utilization is set to transform this landscape for the next decade, in way that might prove to be comparable to the combined impact of broadcast, microwave, and satellite over the past half a century.

The trend finds reflection in a report by a leading global chip manufacturerⁱⁱ, which states that media and entertainment experiences enabled by the emerging 5G technologies will be worth USD 1.3 trillion in global revenues by 2028. With the share of media and entertainment projected to be almost about half of the expected USD 3 trillion global wireless revenues, we are only now starting to realize that the potential for change is not just immense, but also, rather underserved and untapped at the present.

Again, 2025 is expected to be the proverbial ‘tipping point’ for 5G enabled solutions in the worldwide media and entertainment ecosystem, with 57 percent global wireless revenues becoming attributable to the new devices and networks. This number, the report estimates, would rise to over 80 percent by 2028 – a staggering leap from the 18.5 percent expected during 2022. The
transition would be further driven by the growing global adoption of 5G, with a billion users expected as early as 2023ⁱⁱⁱ.

It’s Unlike Anything
We Have Seen
Before – Ever!

The emergence of high-bandwidth low-latency 5G technologies, when combined with the impact of the COVID pandemic, is truly a scenario that has never been seen before. With lockdowns and shifting work patterns redefining content consumption patterns worldwide, we are in the middle of a contest among some of the largest global media houses to deliver more immersive media experiences to end consumer devices. Rich video and audio are no longer an optional extra, but a certainty for driving market reputation and revenue shares – for both device manufacturers and the media and entertainment industry.

Virtual experiences, a collaborative working and viewing environment, and location-based infotainment are therefore but some of the key drivers of this silent yet resilient revolution that is happening within your grip, in the confines of your smartphone. Nearly half of the world already has access to a smartphone, and the share will only continue to rise with every passing minute.

However, like all progress, the onward momentum of the smartphone revolution was initially stymied by the fact that they were often connected to a budget-sensitive data network, which, more often than not, served to throttle your device’s supercomputer-like capabilities by limiting connectivity. This scenario is set to change. The ‘5G Economics of Entertainment Report’ projects that the average monthly traffic for a 5G enabled customer will reach a staggering 84.8GB by 2028, an over 720 percent rise from the 11.7 GB noted in 2019. Video content is projected to constitute a major part – about 90 percent – of this traffic, underscoring the infinite potential that seems to be driving media and entertainment majors in upscaling their offerings.

Let’s take a look at some of these opportunities to understand the projected impact of 5G on our common future:

1. Shared experiences will be transformed:
A combination of ‘smarter’ smartphones, 5G technologies, and cutting-edge mixed-reality headsets will help drive a transformative real-time experience paradigm, whether in the comfort of our homes or on the factory floors. While engineers would have an enhanced access to new ways for monitoring, guiding, and transforming maintenance and repair schedules, the Mozart enthusiast would be able to seamless experience the Salzburg festival from the comfort ofhis home office, irrespective of their location, and in real-time.

2. AR/VR will be accelerated:
5G technologies, leveraging high speed and ultra-low latencies, hold out the promise of accelerating the growth of AR/VR solutions, with some reports projecting a cumulative global revenue stream of over USD 140 billion between 2021 and 2028.

3. Sports events and gaming will be re-imagined:
Team sports will be transformed with ultra-rich visual experiences being overlaid on real world events. Stadium-based sports, in particular, would become interactive tapestries of real-world action with statistics, highlights, and fantasy leagues being placed with a fan’s field0fview (and fingertips). Again, AR-enabled games could well be worth USD 36 billion by 2028, driven by the growing expanse of interactive and immersive experiences made possible by 5G technologies. The emerging faster response, higher resolution, and real time streaming capabilities of 5G enabled devices would also help drive the popularity and penetration of mobile gaming, projected to be worthUSD 100 billion by 2028.

4. Learning will evolve:
Combining the storytelling capabilities of the entertainment companies with 5G wireless to deliver broadband to all, irrespective of location and time, would help catalyze a significant educational transformation. Schools worldwide would increasingly have a virtual component to their curricula, enabling the best teachers to reach students in their homes with captivating visualizations and simulations that would transform the entire teaching-learning paradigm. Students too would have the opportunity to leverage mixed reality technologies to work collaboratively, helping drive a new age distributed approach to problem-solving and group learning.

5. Advertising experiences will be redefined:
5G technologies will have a key role in transitioning legacy display advertising solutions toward a more social and media driven immersive experience. It would help overcome the key challenges – scale, delivery, and measurements – which serve to limit the effectiveness of mobile ad campaigns today.

6. Audience engagement will never be the same:
A deeper understanding of individual content preferences and the ability to customize the offerings accordingly are a vital determinant of media success. Combining data and audience engagement metrics will help create brand loyalty, drive conversion to premium and subscription services, and deliver never before seen targeting and recommendations across the individual’s indicated preference patterns. In other words, audience engagement will change.

Your Mission, Should you Choose to Accept It!

As the global deployment of 5G networks and technologies picks up pace, we can be sure to expect an expansive proliferation of richer media and entertainment experiences. The transition to a more immersive and engaging paradigm would have an impact on all key stakeholders – we would need capable devices, deeper algorithms, and an overall transformed content framework. Cloud migration will also be a key driver in the transition as a greater part of the experience tapestry shifts to the web.

We are sure to witness a new image of the future of the media and entertainment industry as the global 5G rollouts gather steam. This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and journey that is worth its while.

Are you ready for it?

References:

i https://www.gsma.com/futurenetworks/ip_services/understanding-5g/

ii https://newsroom.intel.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/10/intel-5g-economics-backgrounder.pdf

iii https://www.ericsson.com/en/mobility-report