THE traditional television advert will not die out despite the increasing use of digital recording devices – that’s the message from accountancy firm Deloitte, in its annual review of the media world.
Deloitte’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications team predicts that, by the end of this year, more than half of homes in the UK will own a digital video recorder (DVR), meaning they can pause live television and skip adverts.
But, despite fears that such technology would mean the death of the television advert, Deloitte believes most people will still be prepared to sit through the ad breaks.
The company is also predicting that as sales of recorded music continue to decline, the music industry will become even more reliant on revenues from live music.
Will Smith, technology partner at Deloitte in the North West, said: “While DVRs provide the technological capacity to skip ads, the majority of DVR owners are likely to continue watching their television live.
“TV ad rates may go up or may go down for various reasons this year, but DVR penetration probably won’t be one of them.”
Mr Smith said record labels would this year spend less money on developing new talent – but he warned that the industry needed to find the new stadium-filling acts who will one day step into the shoes of veterans such as The Rolling Stones and U2.
He said: “The need to foster new talent has rarely been more pressing, as 40% of the highest grossing live acts in the US over the past decade will be 60 or older.”
Television, said Mr Smith, would remain the world’s “super media”, aided by technology that allows people to search for their favourite television programmes.
He said: “This year’s predictions show television’s continued strength, which continues to lead all media in total revenues, including advertising sales, subscriptions, pay-per-view, and license fees.
“In addition, some 40m new viewers will tune in for the first time and more than 140bn more hours of content will be watched around the world.
“The television set is continually evolving and tens of millions will be sold in 2011 with a search function that allows viewers to ‘pull’ content via simple search applications on the menu screen.”
Deloitte’s report, based on the thoughts of its 7,000 partners around the world who specialise in the sector, also suggests that the video games industry will benefit from new revenue streams including monthly subscriptions, in-game purchases and even advertising within games.
