IT in Entertainment
New technologies are bringing about significant shifts in entertainment media that will alter the way businesses interact with consumers.Daily practices learned by consumers from new
entertainment experiences will spill over into other domains of daily life—work,shopping,home management,and others.In many ways,the new entertainment media enable ways to play out future forms of daily practice in a safe context.For this reason it is important to examine how technologies may bring about change in the entertainment domain.
The new entertainment media in 2012 will be oriented around personal media that are generated by consumers rather than packaged and distributed by providers.This new entertainment media will also provide persistent experiences that do not disappear with a switch of a button but linger over the course of daily life.Touch points in the physical environment will embody entertainment and set forth a new relationship among consumers,entertainment,and their broader daily life activities.
The technology compass on page 1 provides a framework for examining the future of consumer entertainment.The companion report,The Household Horizon:A Guide to Technology and Daily Life in 2012,IFTF Special Report (SR-788A),introduces the basic framework,provides more detail on the elements of the compass,and explains how it can be used to provide insight and anticipate future consumer practices,desires,and fears.
First,the compass framework allows us to examine entertainment as a specific domain of household activity (the domains are represented on the outer circle of the compass).Here we look at
what entertainment means to consumers and how it fits into the broader flow of daily life?Second,by examining the impacts of four technology-driven shifts (in the center of the compass),we can anticipate future consumer practices related to entertainment.
An understanding of these practices will highlight new desires and demands that could potentially broaden the entertainment market within households.This will outline a basic picture of new opportunities for business related to marketing and product development.