Online Digital Content Explosion Presents Opportunities & Problems
eMarketer DRM Report looks at the balance of copyright protection and customers' expectations
JANUARY 19, 2006 -- NEW YORK, NY iTunes figured out how to deliver online, Sony didn't. Guess which one is making money and which one angered its consumers.
eMarketer's new report Digital Rights Management: Finding the Right Balance looks at the increasingly fragile line that content providers are walking. Consumers do not want to be blocked from content they want it when and how it best suits them. If content is blocked, savvy users will find it elsewhere. Content providers can either get a piece of the action, or risk having their content avoided because of tight content restrictions from DRM and restrictive terms-of-service agreements.
"Sony's recent Digital Rights Management (DRM) fiasco highlighted the tightrope content producers employing DRM technologies are currently walking," says Ben Macklin, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the report. "Authors, artists and publishers now have the technological tools to better protect their digital creations but if they want consumers to pay for their digital work, they must find the right balance between copyright protection and customer's expectations."
Changing media consumption patterns and emerging broadband channels are opening up new opportunities for content providers. TV still presents content providers (and advertisers) with the largest audience for high-bandwidth content with approximately 1 billion households worldwide having a TV in 2005. And eMarketer forecasts that nearly half of US broadband users in 2008 (76.5 million people) will be regular users of Internet audio/video content, up from 31% in 2004.
"New channels for broadband content are emerging, with approximately 30 million broadband users accessing online audio or video content each week in the US to access, record, and share digital content," says Mr. Macklin. "Used effectively, DRM technologies have the potential to open up these new channels to traditional publishers and producers."
eMarketer's Digital Rights Management report answers these key questions:
How big is the market for digital content?
How are media consumption patterns changing?
What do consumers expect when accessing online content?
How does DRM fit in with current laws and business models?
And many more...
Click here for more information on eMarketer's Digital Rights Management report.
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Source: eMarketer
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