News

DTC Research Reports: Commanding Control of Entertainment Content Is Critical Next Step for Owning the Digital Living Room (27/6/2005)

New Players Threat to Entertainment Companies in a Land-Grab for the Content Distribution Market

How soon companies can protect digital content is the next big hurdle to overcome in the multi-billion-dollar race to control the living room - even more than licensing the content, according to the newest market report from Digital Tech Consulting (DTC).

The market for protecting content - including subscription-, license-, broadcast- and fee-based materials - will more than double to reach $2 billion by 2009. Getting content protection firmly in place will meet accelerating consumer and business demand for new forms of packaged digital services and products. Front-runners will capture the first and second waves of new users, a big edge in fast-moving markets.

At the same time, the upheaval of distributing content using newer technologies and pipelines, like Internet Protocol and mobile telephony networks, is creating massive new opportunities for the so-called upstarts who own the infrastructure, especially telecommunications and IT companies. These players may well unseat the cable and satellite providers that have dominated the industry, simply because they have controlled access to the content.

"This race will be won within the next three years - with front-runners grabbing an insurmountable lead, because this will be a mainstream market by 2009," said Myra Moore, president of DTC, the industry's leading market research firm in digital content protection and digital rights management. "The sooner providers can assure content creators that their HDTV broadcasts, new movies and music are safeguarded from piracy - the faster entertainment companies will roll out more digital content to enrich distribution offerings."

The Business of Digital Copyright is considered the industry's 'bible' for any company involved in licensing content and tracking sales against earlier projections, for its extremely accurate and detailed market forecasts. The newest edition was published in May.

The Big Driver: Money, Not Fear

The 2005 report highlights what leaders and challengers need to know to compete in this fluctuating arena - which spans TV, cable and satellite broadcast, desktop and hand-held devices, and multi-media cell phones. The innovators who tap lower-cost delivery methods will be well positioned to deliver new bundled services and, in turn, build household loyalty.

The report is the industry's only full-spectrum view of all of the interlocking issues, including pricing, emerging technologies, legislative issues, liability concerns, and specific revenue forecasts projected across nine major product categories that require copy protection technology.

It also provides hard-to-find detail on the business models of today's top-25 players, including Time Warner, Viacom, Sony, IBM, ContentGuard, Intertrust Technologies Corporation, Macrovision, RealNetworks, Microsoft Media Player, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, the European Union and World Intellectual Property Organization. Additional insights include:

-- How challengers are restructuring licensing and revenue to pursue market growth, and unseat established content service providers

-- Device and revenue forecasts for nine specific markets and analysis of emerging technology standards, including the Digital Transport Copy Protection (DTCP), High Definition Copy Protection (HDCP) and Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) DRM

-- Interpretations of top public policy issues most likely to set precedent, like the Induce Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, for how digital entertainment is developed and consumed worldwide - and where liability is likely to reside

The Business of Digital Copyright: Content Protection and Management in the Consumer Digital Era is 237 pages and costs $2,995.

www.dtcreports.com