MEDIA REVENUES SPIKE AS THE INDUSTRY REBOUNDS FROM PANDEMIC IMPACTS

PWC recently released its “Entertainment & Media Outlook 2021‑2025” forecast report, through which it revealed promising projections for the media industry, projecting the streaming market to reach $94 billion by 2025. The researcher’s analysis, based on advertising spending data across 14 segments and 53 territories,  also noted strong streaming, gaming, and user-generated content accelerations, suggesting an ever-transitioning industry.

The Covid-19 pandemic was responsible for sweeping away four-fifths of total box-office revenues and a 3.8% overall decline in global industry revenue to $2 trillion last year. In March of this year, 23% of theaters remained closed. PWC projects box office revenues to return at a CAGR over the forecast period. By 2025, it will be US$10.4bn, representing a -2.6% decline from pre-pandemic levels.

In the U.S., 2020 media and entertainment industry revenue fell 4.5 percent from $717 billion to $685 billion. The study looks ahead at the years 2021–2025, forecasting global industry revenue to bounce back 6.5 percent this year as more regions reopen for business, placing the market at a growing rate of 6.7% for next year. PWC expects revenue to rise to a total of $2.6 trillion at a 5% growth rate. 

Streaming growth projections include a rise in subscription spending to more than $81 billion. The industry was among the only ones to grow amid the pandemic, and its  CAGR is expected to reach 10.6% by 2025. “As consumer attention is going to get more and more fragmented and folks go back outside, that $5.99 that they may have been willing to spend or $7.99 on the fourth or fifth streaming service or that cable subscription may get reviewed,” CJ Bangah, Technology, Media & Telecom Principal, PwC in the US, said.

Traditional TV/home video remains the largest E&M consumer segment $219.0 billion, but will continue to decrease by -1.2% CAGR over the next five years, while video game and esports revenues continue their rapid ascent, reaching US$147.7 billion in 2020, with a 5.7% CAGR projected to expand the segment to become an almost US$200 billion business at $194.4 billion by 2025.  “Consumers are going to take a fresh look at where their money is going and in some cases make different decisions,” Bangah explained.  “So, being in the top 1, 2, 3 kind of sources of entertainment and media consumption that really is adding value.”