"Does It Add Up?" Convergence facts, figures and trends

Convergence -- they're all in it together!  In previous years, IPKat team member Jeremy has been pleased to report the outcome of the Convergence Survey conducted by Olswang LLP, the London-based law firm to which he is attached as Intellectual Property Consultant. One of the nice things that the firm does for the community at large is to produce, in conjunction with research and consulting organisation YouGov, this survey which covers trends in TV, tablets [of the non-pharmaceutical variety, adds Merpel], platforms, movies, publishing, music and other media.  While YouGov does the techie online survey bits, the legal input is fronted by John Enser (a founder member of the 1709 Blog team) and this Kat's namesake, but no relation, Matt Phillips.

This year's Olswang Convergence Survey, 'Does It Add Up?', identifies digital trends and predictions for the future.  It asks whether convergence delivers truly incremental value to those whose traditional revenue streams are threatened by new forms of distribution and technology: are we finally on the verge of a tipping point which will lead towards internet protocol-based exploitation of audio-visual content, or does this remain a distant prospect?  The findings, based on a combination of interviews conducted with over 30 senior executives across the technology, media and telecoms sectors and an online survey of more than 2,000 participating adult consumers, look like this:

No TV, but Moses still
had two tablets 

 Tablets, especially the iPad, are a catalyst for change in many areas of consumer behaviour. Of particular interest is the rising use of tablets as second or companion screen devices alongside TV [this is why so many humans have four eyes ...];

Despite the range of new entrants offering connected devices looking to mediate access to TV, it's  the established pay TV operators who are best placed to benefit from convergence;

Traditional scheduled TV continues to thrive:: much non-linear viewing on PVRs and VOD platforms is still tied to traditional scheduled viewing. The schedule forms a recommendation engine to guide viewing decisions and a significant proportion of non-linear viewing  consist of catch-up television services, which encourage the viewer to return to the linear schedule. Social media encourage this by promoting the buzz of watching something "now" and socialising with others watching at around the same time; 

 Movies – film distributors worry that the Netflix model [on which see IPKat Neil's thoughtful analysis here] doesn't deliver enough revenue to them. 3D will remain powerful in the cinemas, but there is limited evidence to support its widespread adoption at a consumer level".

This note just scratches the surface.  The survey report is 146 pages in length and is packed with statistics, as well as sector reviews of sport, gambling and other pleasurably vices.  If all you want is the summary, you can get it here -- but you want the whole hog, as it were, just email Lily Federico here or Carolyn Finn here, and tell them the IPKat sent you!

For the 2009 Convergence Report, click here; for the 2008 report click here.