The Impact of ICT on Entertainment

The Rise of the Internet

In the UK today:

• A third of homes have broadband internet access

• In these homes, 25% of “media time” is spent accessing the internet.

• The internet can be used for:– Gaming– Pod-casts and music downloads– Streaming media– Finding out more about favourite artists and actors;

many of these have their own sites and will reply to fans – a democratisation of the entertainment industry!

An End to Broadcasting?• Many radio and television programmes are

already available on the internet, with more to come

• CD sales are already in decline; will the sales of DVDs follow?

• Will television channels cease to exist in the future?

• Will the idea that the broadcaster decides when we watch things be alien to our children?

• Do you think you’d watch more or fewer programmes if they were all available on the internet?

Quality vs Convenience• The BBC has received a lot of criticism for the

quality of DAB (digital radio) as the quality was reduced to expand choice

• Music downloads are becoming more popular despite using lossy compression, while higher quality formats such as DVD-Audio and SACD have failed to take off

• Cameraphones are a popular way of taking photographs of family and friends

• Lots of internet audio and video (e.g. RealAudio) is of a low quality

• Are people happy to trade quality for convenience?