Thaindian News

New Delhi, Nov 19 (IANS) Consumers around the world will increasingly access media content and live entertainment through next-gen smart devices like tablets and internet-connected television, making standalone devices irrelevant, according to a study by Bain and Company released at the Forum d’Avignon - 2011.

Forum d’Avignon - 2011 — an event in south-eastern France — provided opportunities for discussions on the worlds of culture, creativity and media Nov 17-19. This year, about 400 attendees from all continents shared their vision of this personal and collective investment in culture.

The report by Brain & Company which analysed consumer behaviour in five countries, including 621 people from India, said: “Overall, our study suggests that some type of connected device could be in more than 60 percent of households in the US, the UK and France by 2014 — and in up to 30 percent of households in urban China and India.”

The report said that trends like access to high speed internet, development of high-definition and 3D videos, major investments in cloud computing and introduction of innovative interfaces which use voice recognition and motion controls, will attract consumers to access entertainment content through the smart-devices.

“These rapidly maturing technologies will reach mass adoption by 2014. High-speed Internet access is already ubiquitous in Western countries according to Ovum,” the report said.

Ovum is a technology research firm.

“In urban China, based on Ovum’s projections, 70 percent of households will have such access by 2014,” the report said adding that bottlenecks in India’s telecommunication infrastructure could limit broadband access to less than 25 percent of urban households by 2014.

Consumers will also benefit with more customised choices being made available not only for live events but also for internet and social networking ones too.

“Through social networking technologies, people can connect socially around this content and experience it with others, whether in the living room, the classroom or on the go.”

One good example that the report mentions is the availability of YouTube’s short videos on television sets, tablets and the flexibility to even choose the angle of view or access further information about any event or program.

On the business front the report said that the shift may not result in any major market expansion for the service providers, as the new content will create distribution and profitability issues.

“As they (consumers) create new territories to explore imaginative ways of experiencing content, connected devices and services raise equally challenging distribution and profitability issues,” the report added.

The Forum d’Avignon was created after the ratification of the UNESCO convention on cultural diversity, and since its beginning, has been backed by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication.