5G

THE NEXT TECH DISRUPTION IN MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT

On January 28, the German American Business Association, GABA SoCal, presented a fascinating panel discussion with leading industry executives from Verizon, Warner Bros. at Phase Two in Los Angeles.

When asked whether 5G will disrupt the industry, the panelists concurred the new technology will indeed transform our lives on many levels by enabling the creation of new business models and advance immersive interactive experiences across video, gaming, music, and advertising. The speakers strongly believe that 5G will shift our lives enhancing connectivity as well as mobility.

Panel from left to right: Joerg Bachmaier, Josh Gold, Bennoit Vatere, and Priscillla Pesci; Moderator: Kai Buehler

5G Network Capabilities

The digital disruption that has the media and entertainment industry turned up-side down (once again) is far from over and further technological advancements will continue towards a premium content-driven future. Access to more platforms, such as VR programs, will transform consumers’ experiences.
Moreover, 5G is expected to constitute the next-gen digital standard for wireless services which will alter the market and the way telco operators will conduct business.

In its Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2019-2023 PwC predicts revenues from the VR market alone will catapult to US$7.2 billion. PwC attributes the growth in data consumption to consumers’ growing appetite for video content, which will account for 85.6% of total data consumption in 2022. 5G, as mentioned above, will contribute to this boost.

Plus, 5G is developing alongside continuing advances in artificial intelligence, the worldwide rollout of smart devices, the evolution of virtual and augmented reality, and location-based services will truly transform our lives. From a content perspective, the opportunities to innovate in the next five years—and beyond—are seemingly endless.

Forecast: Key Findings

  • Compared with today’s 4G, the next-gen 5G standard promises faster speeds of at least 20-fold, instant response times, vastly improved network efficiencies and longer device battery life, among other benefits. Over the next five years, PwC expects data traffic levels will grow by a 22.3% CAGR, reaching 397.8 trillion megabytes in 2022.
    The 5G target for latency — the time between a device’s data request and the response it receives — is 1 millisecond or less, a massive improvement over the average 4G latency of around 50 milliseconds. It’s “as fast as your brain processes reality,” claims AT&T Business chief marketing officer Mo Katibeh.
  • 5G will improve mobile video consumption as ‘video buffering’ won’t be an encumbrance anymore. Thus, the new technology experts predict that content accessed via mobile will skyrocket in the coming years. In fact, annual mobile media revenues are expected to double to $420bn globally by 2028, including $124bn in the US alone.
  • The intersection of the latest technology will allow for a wide range of new opportunities with regards to content creation and consumption behavior. In particular, those advancements will affect immersive interactive experiences across video, gaming, music and advertising — including augmented and virtual reality — to in-car entertainment in self-driving autos or even 3D holographics.

    In-car entertainment alone is foreseen to generate 19.5 billion USD within the next decade, and surveys show that consumers are even ready to pay more for in-car entertainment as compared to mobile entertainment.