Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Accenture Says You’re The Biggest Threat To Media & Entertainment Industries
by
According to a new Accenture survey, the media and entertainment industries see consumer generated content (CGC) as the main threat to their business models. Accenture surveyed 110 top executives in film, publishing, television, radio, music, advertising and the Internet. The results show 57 percent of these executives think the rapid growth of CGC is one of the top challenges their industry will face in the years ahead. Consumer generated content includes amateur videos, photography, blogs, podcasts and social networks that are now easily enabled and disseminated via the Web.
In response to the results, the head of Accenture’s Media and Entertainment practice said, “This is just the beginning for a rapidly changing landscape where the media content environment grows more fractious and the user gains more control and power. Traditional, established content providers will have to adapt and develop new business and monetization models in order to keep revenue streams flowing.”
Nobody is suggesting that CGC is going to replace the wealth of professional content that is produced by these mainstream industries, but the sheer volume of output produced by consumers and published on the Web, and the fact that some of it is attracting considerable attention, is enough to disrupt the value chain that was once the exclusive domain of big industry stalwarts.
As the survey points out, CGC not only disrupts the revenue model of these industries, it also takes away some of their scheduling advantages. Content on the Web is available 24/7 and people are becoming less dependent on the flow of information or entertainment being delivered on someone else’s timetable, i.e. regularly scheduled programming, daily newspapers or monthly subscriptions.
This is just another example of the rising power of the consumer, and is clearly a manifestation of why Time named “You" Person of The Year, and Advertising Age named “You" Agency of The Year.
