Issues and Trend that Impact upon Global Entertainment - Coursework Example

Issues and Trend that impact upon Global Entertainment Introduction: In modern world people consider entertainment not only as a time pass activity but at the same time entertainment is consider as a medium to convey the ideas of any particular society or nations. In several countries such as India, China etc. countries where there are more than billion people as well as diverse culture across the society entertainment is a big option to increase the closeness as well as exchange culture among one another. Entertainment is an option which in modern times used by various corporates as well to ensure that they can make their employees relaxed as well as can encourage them to perform even better. With every passing year, the pattern or style associated with the entertainment industry is changing along with the choices of the customers. One must consider the fact that the entertainment industry is changing with the time and there are various factors associated with the changes as well as challenges faced by the various segment associated with this industry. The main objective of this paper is to take a detail view of the entertainment industry as a whole and then consider two sub parts of this industry- Films and Television how they are performing in recent years, what are the changes associated with the industries, how the companies associated with these two segments are changing their strategies to cope up the challenges and finally which of these two is more capable to combat the sudden changes in the global market. Global Entertainment Industry- An Overview: Global entertainment industry has grown over the years in a rapid pace. As per the report published by the PWC, in the first half of 2007, they have mentioned that as per their expectation, the industry was supposed to grow at 6.4% compound growth rate and was to reach $2 trillion by 2011. As per their expectation, internet, TV distribution and video games industry were top of the chart in terms of annual growth rate for a period of 5 years: 2007-2011. In their report they have predicted that filmed entertainment industry was supposed to touch $103bn by end of 2011. Broadband industry supposed to touch 540m by the end of 2011. “Internet will lead growth in the advertising sector, with a compound annual growth rate of 18.3% leading to a tally of $73bn in 2011.” (Mitchel, 2007) Details about the Industrial Activity: Film Industry: Film industry is one of the key players of the world entertainment industry. Over the years, there are lots of changes in the film industries across the globe and now it has been considered as one of the top performing entertainment industry. At the beginning, most of the films were black and white, without any speech and based on various real life incidents of the past, life stories of various popular people of the society as well as historical events. Slowly the situation started to change. With the innovation of science and technology, colour concept introduced in the film industry, more advanced sound techniques, cinematography as well as changing choice pattern of the audience all these factors have played an important role in boosting the film industry of the world. Before analyzing the challenges of the world film as well as possible solution let discuss about some of the top performing movie industry of present time. When one considers about the film industry, one always consider Hollywood as the leader of the pack. For a long period of time, Hollywood was the leader of the world film industry but as the time moves on, there are several growing industries in different countries like South Korea, China, Nigeria, and India- who are started to challenge Hollywood in a large way. Redfern (2013) in his review has clearly stated that “Every year, Hollywood creates hundreds of theatrical releases and exports, many of those films overseas, contributing to Hollywood’s yearly revenue of over $10 billion. But, some countries have overcome this challenge and developed their own massive film industry, becoming competitive and often surpassing the U.S. in terms of volume, quality, and appeal.”(Redfern, 2013) South Korea: It is considered as the powerhouse of Asia. It is a fact that, there are number of countries in South East Asia like China, Japan etc. are also dependent on South Korea in terms of entertainment industry. The South Korean film industry able to tackle all its challenges in 1990s and in 1998, the movie Shiri managed to create more funding as well as interest for domestic film industry. After the success of this movie, the South Korean government makes it mandatory that at least 40% film needs to be domestic. Redfern in his review has clearly mentioned that “in the past 10 years, Korean films have outstripped foreign films in terms of box office revenue and ticket sales. In 2012 alone, domestic films earned $44 million whereas foreign films brought in $35 million.”(Redfern, 2013) If one analyzes the trend of the films in the South korea, it is very clear that “Korean films often pull from the country’s own troubled history, (Japanese occupation, Korean War, the division of the peninsula), meaning that many of the films are both historical and deeply personal. Add to that, Korea’s love of romance, slapstick humor, and drama” (Redfern, 2013) overall it is a viable and impressive film industry Nigeria: In recent years, the Nigerian film industry is growing at a faster pace more than that of the Hollywood industry and almost every experts associated with this industry are considering the Nigerian film industry as the biggest challenger of the Bollywood or the Indian film industry. The growth of the Nigerian film industry started from 2006 itself, as in that year, the country produced 876 movies, 2 times that of the USA. The films were produced within a very short period time in various locations outside the film studios such as in streets, or apartment buildings etc. They often released those films in DVDs mainly translated in English for a wide range of distribution especially in the other African countries. While analyzing the characteristics of these movies, Redfern has mentioned that most of the Nigerian films are based on “conflicts over faith, balancing modernity and tradition, and of course, the struggles of family. In some ways, Nigerian film seems more realistically grounded in the troubles of the everyman and the search for a better life than most of Western cinema.”(Redfern, 2013) India: In terms of number of movies produced, India is the leader of the world Film industry. In the year of 2011 only, India created more than 1000 films as well as 1500 short films also. India is being considered as the most diverse film industry of the world where it covers largest ground across the country with nine different regions producing over 1000 films every year in sixteen different languages. “Indian cinema is generally upbeat and optimistic in nature, featuring strong family values with very little sex or violence; but at the same time “Indian cinema is generally a joyous spectacle of community, religion, family, music, dance, and love, and watching these films is an incredible sensory experience.”(Redfern, 2013) Challenges for the Film Industry: In recent times, the film industry is not only dependent on Hollywood or UK, there are number of countries like China, India, Nigeria-growing lips and bounds. Despite various technological advancements the film industry facing some key challenges in every country which they need to address sooner to be one of the leading players in the entertainment industry as a whole. Generally the film industry is being considered as the most challenging industry in the media-entertainment sector and the main challenges associated with this sector are changing technology, changing choice pattern of the audience, pattern associated with film distribution, and most importantly fluctuations in the currency. In various countries, the trend is to choose any foreign destination to shoot the film but that often make it more costly. Therefore it becomes very important that the movie must recover maximum possible money from the box office to book the profit. Grove 2012 mentioned some key challenges associated with the movie making across the film industry-especially among the independent movie makers and those are: 1. Digital revolution has made it cheaper for the producer to develop more movies within a short span of time. 2. Online availability of movies making the business tougher to exist as online distribution is now a very common ideas. 3. There are less number of unique ideas in Hollywood which once known as the home of different ideas among the filmmakers. (Grove, 2012) 4. Distribution now is entirely different as it is more dependent of pre publicity and promotional activities as well to create an interest among the viewers. This is a challenge as the promotional expenses are now increasing every year. Television Industry: Facts and Challenges Like film industry, television industry is also a great medium of entertainment for the people across countries. If one take comparative views about film and television industry –it is very clear that television industry is associated with more or less every single kind of entertainments which are going around across the globe. Sports, News, Movies, educational and environmental programs, devotional program, reality shows- all different forms of entertainment can be enjoyed with the help of television. More over television is a scientific creation which needs one time investment to buy it (until one like to upgrade the same into more betters quality of product but the offerings will be the same) and needs to pay the monthly subscription to the cable operators for watching various channels If one analyze the revenue structure associated with the television industry then it is very clear that the maximum revenue is coming from the advertising sector as corporates still believes that television is a great way to promote their offerings. Apart from that government often used the television as a medium to convey their messages for the people of the country. International Television Expert group in their review clearly mentioned that in 2009, the television industry get affected by the decline in the revenue from the advertising. The decline was as high as 9.2% in that year, and most importantly another key fact that is paid television or public funding-these 2 together were unable to overcome the revenue decline from advertising. The above two segment were responsible for contributing 7.2% & 3.5% of earning for the television industry. To describe the trend, International Television Expert group (2010) in their review has mentioned that “Up until 2008, advertising was by far the primary means of funding for the industry, generating about 50% of the sectors revenue, compared to 40% for paid television and 10% for public funding. In 2009, the weight of advertising and subscriptions each accounted for about 45% of the sector’s revenue. By 2010, revenue from paid television should exceed overall advertising revenue worldwide, reaching a ratio of approximately 47% by 2013”.(International Television Expert, 2010). In their report they have also mentioned that in 2009 only the world Television market was accounted for 268.9 billion Euro, which was 1.2% less than that of the 2008and the main reason behind this downfall was the less revenue from promotion and advertising and financial crisis. Over the year, the ownership associated with the television has dropped, and the gap is now wider compared to that of 1992 but it is also a fact that average viewership length has been increased per month basis to 159 hours. This is one of the plus points associated with the television industry. (Drell, 2011) Another key positives associated with the television industry is the process of digitalization. In developing countries like India, television enters the market very late but within a span of 35-40 years this is considered as one of the fast growing media industry. Despite the development of internet, social media, apps and high end mobile phones, television industry has grown rapidly. In European countries, there is significant increase in the TV channels increased from “a few hundred in 1999 to 9,800 channels in 2010. In India also, the number of TV channels have reached 825 till 2011 ends.”(Lath, 2013) There are 5 key challenges associated with the television industries across the globe and Drell in her report her mentioned those as: 1. The development of internet taking people away from the television; 2. The continuously growing film industry is taking people away from the television as the demand of movie is growing rapidly; 3. In modern world LCDs, LEDS and flat screen television started to dominate the television world and those are now the common models. Moreover, development of HD technologies also creating problem for the lower class to enjoy the viewership of television; 4. With growing technology people are now more interested on watching various shows or getting news of politics economy on the move or while doing other social activities. As Drell in his review has mentioned “42% of Americans surf the web while watching television, 29% talk on their phones while the TV is on and 26% of consumers are texting or sending IMs”(Drell,2011) 5. In modern world, television revenue is mostly based on advertisement and during the financial crisis of 2010-2012, the industry suffered a lot due to less amount of funding from the advertisement which affects this industry badly. (Drell, 2011) Possible Solution: Film Industry or Television Industry-which one is more prepared to tackle the challenges: If one analyze the recent challenges associated with both Television and Film industry it is very clear that the most common threat is the development of internet and social media. In recent years, film industry is facing the big challenge from piracy where people are able to download the movie from internet, from various free websites within few days of release. To protect this, government of various countries have come up with several piracy protecting laws as well as rules t ensure that people must visit the movie hall to watch the movies. This is directly associated with the earning of the government as well. Another key point is the changing choice or liking of the people of the modern world. People of modern world are happier to watch movies based on real life stories or true events rather than frictions or other so called entertainment happy ending stories. To attract them, it is very important for the people associated with the film industry to come up with more updated stories as well as cutting age idea about story telling. With the availability of internet, movies of one country is not limited to that particular nations or society as people all over the globe can enjoy films of other nations as well. Therefore, any kind of duplicity is easily traceable by the viewers. So directors are now giving more time to design or direct the story which they want to show. Innovative advertising and promotion is another possible resolution taken by the people associated with the film industry as they are regularly using the social media along with print medium or live promotional activities to create more encouragement among viewers. In recent years, movie makers are more eager to direct short budget movies on political or social issues, or real life stories which attracting the people more rather than love stories. These small budget movies are a great solution for the film industry. But the television industry is not so much ready to come up with possible solution to increase the number of viewers or develop interest like 1990s among the people. As Isaacson (2013) in his report has mentioned that the television industry now need their own Steve jobs desperately who just by innovative thinking can change the industry as a whole. Lsaacson mentioned that the television industry “needs their iPod moment. They need their ITunes moment. They need their iPhone and iPad moments, too. Hell, at this point they just need their colored iMac moment.”(Isaacson, 2013) In his opinion people associated with television industry need to review their ideas; ideas like cutting short the television shows to 13-15 episode ones so that people not get bored; make better promotional campaign for those TV shows which are more real life and based on true stories or those which are more recent. Television industry needs to categorize their program for all age groups and must give special emphasis for the young as in coming years this age group going to be the major part of the entire world population. It is very clear that although the film industry is able to tackle the possible challenges but television industry despite knowing the challenges is unable to come up with some ground breaking solution. It is also important that they must figure out an alternate source of income apart from the advertising and promotion as this one dimensional income idea can be dangerous during financial crisis. Conclusion: The future of entertainment industry is largely dependent on the television and film industry and how these two segments are able to change themselves with the time. At one point these two sectors are the key contributor to the entertainment industry but with the time there are more players like sports, internet started to become dominant players. It is a proven fact that, “Content creators were married to distribution companies, but that may shift” as “The Internet may be a game-changer if content creators can be profitable.”(Jones, 2013) With the time technology such as free movie download, social media or streaming videos in internet will grow and it is important for both film and television industries to find out a solution or way out to tackle this challenges. The television industry is more in a danger as people are now getting everything online such as news, sports update, economic announcement for which once they have no other option but to rely on television. It is important for the television industry specially to ensure that they can represent all their offerings in a new and better way to attract people and most importantly can find alternate or advertising earnings like what Steve Jobs did to Apple when he took the charge. Reference: 1. Drell, L; (2011); 5 Current Trends Shaping the Television Industry; Mashable; retrieved on 6.8.2014 from http://mashable.com/2011/07/20/consumer-trends-tv/ 2. Global TV 2010 - Markets, Trends Facts & Figures (2008-2013); (2010); International Television Expert Group; retrieved on 6.8.2014 from http://www.international-television.org/tv_market_data/world-tv-market-2010.html 3. Grove, E; (2012); 7 Challenges Facing Independent Filmmakers; Rain dance; retrieved on 6.8.2014 from http://www.raindance.org/7-challenges-facing-independent-filmmakers/ 4. Isaacson, W; (2013); why the TV Industry Needs Its Version of Steve Jobs -- and Fast; The Hollywood Reporter; retrieved on 6.8.2014 from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bastard-machine/tv-industry-needs-a-steve-427332 5. Jones, S; (2013); What Is the Future of Television? Inc; retrieved on 6.8.2014 from http://www.inc.com/scott-jones/future-of-television.html 6. Lath, A; (2013); Part II: Digitization- Growth trends of the Film and Television Industry: comparative analysis; Spicyip; retrieved on 6.8.2014 from http://spicyip.com/2013/02/part-ii-digitization-growth-trends-of.html 7. Mitchell, W; (2007); Global entertainment industry to be worth $2 trillion by 2011; Screen Daily; retrieved on 6.8.2014 from http://www.screendaily.com/global-entertainment-industry-to-be-worth-2-trillion-by-2011/4033233.article 8. Redfern, R; (2013); 3 Countries with Booming Movie: Industries that Are Not the U.S; Arts. Mic; retrieved on 6.8.2014 from http://mic.com/articles/54609/3-countries-with-booming-movie-industries-that-are-not-the-u-s Read More