Future of Online Entertainment

The right formula for entertaining online consumers is the subject a report by USWeb/CKS, which seeks to examine how businesses can build viable entertainment businesses online.

The report, “Charting the Future on Online Entertainment,” identifies areas of optimism, opportunity, and concern for companies looking to become profitable through online entertainment. According to the report, five principles will shape the future of entertainment on the Internet:

• The user’s experience will become the product
• “Creative” will leverage the Internet’s interactivity
• Personalized digital delivery will replace mass distribution
• Commerce will become the primary revenue generator
• The major players will remain the major players.

Technological advances will drive user experiences to an even greater level of intimacy, the report found.

“Like other global industries, entertainment has spent the last five years on a steep learning curve,” said Nick Rothenberg of USWeb/CKS. “Now, as network bandwidth expands and e-commerce becomes a reality, the entertainment industry is poised to tackle the really big questions” ‘How will consumers be entertained five years from now? And how will companies build viable entertainment businesses online?'”

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The report also concludes that entertainment and media companies will increasingly be capable of either selling products or serving up an experience, or both, while entertaining. These companies will also begin to replace traditional mass marketing with niche marketing efforts capable of leveraging the Internet’s interactive potential, the report predicts.

“We’re all learning that the Internet really does operate by different rules,” said Steve Rennie, president of UBL.com, a music entertainment and e-commerce site. Traditional marketing and selling programs don’t apply, nor do the usual business models. Entertainment and media companies must make a cultural shift to both operate on Internet time and accept a technological way of doing business.”

USWeb/CKS’ report includes insight from top entertainment and media industry executives from organizations including 20th Century Fox, Hard Rock Cafe, NBC, and Sony Pictures.