IBM predicts age of open media

DMeurope.com:

Massive changes in the terrain of media and entertainment over the next five to seven years will force tectonic shifts in the business models of broadcast and film companies, predicts a report from IBM Business Consulting Services.

The report, Media & Entertainment 2010, unveiled today, says that by 2010, the landscape of the industry will change so dramatically that, in order to survive, media companies will have to move to a truly open environment, allowing consumers around-the-clock access to protected media content for variable fees and the ability to largely control their own media and entertainment experiences.

The report highlights the struggle that media companies face, bridging from the historic model of systematic, promotional-based, one-way delivery to mass audiences to a world incorporating digital technologies, analytics-driven marketing approaches and distribution models leveraging bi-directional relationships. These changes will continue to redefine the economics of the media business, much as has already occurred in the music industry. …

The report recommends that companies convert all content to digital formats and open digital doors to let consumers contribute, produce or author dynamic content. Companies that make it in the new environment will allow customers access to information on their own terms, including the ability to purchase and download the rights to a book, or other media and have it configured for one or more types of devices, or delivered immediately in traditional hard or soft cover.

Couldn’t have written it better myself. Here’s the link to the report, and the full 44-page report as a PDF.

JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.