Study Suggests Increase in Paid Digital Content to Impact Ad Trends
By Karla Robinson
November 6, 2012
November 6, 2012
- With various freemium alternatives, it seems that consumers aren’t as willing to pay for content. However, a new study from Forrester suggests otherwise, finding that the number of people in western Europe purchasing digital content will grow by eight to 12 percent in five years.
- The findings predict that by 2017, 20 percent of tablet users in western Europe will pay for news; the number of people who pay for online games will increase 27 percent; digital content will account for 60 percent of video-buying; and the number of music subscribers will double.
- “The boom will be fueled partly by the currently-radiating explosion in new devices designed for media consumption, many with attractive built-in payment mechanisms,” paidContent reports.
- “The potential impact on marketers is huge,” says Forrester analyst Darika Ahrens. “Successful online content providers no longer need to rely on ad spend. (There will be) fewer chances to reach consumers with ads.”
- “She says marketers should respond by building their own content channels, sponsoring content packages within a paid content environment and otherwise start advertising as though it were creating content for end consumers,” explains the article.
- “The consequence of such a model is that as more content becomes marketer-created, disclosures describing the relationship between advertiser and publisher must be visible to readers, who are as used to the traditional church-and-state separation of editorial and commercial as content producers themselves are.”
- The article notes some companies that offer subscriptions still rely on advertising revenue, like Hulu and the Financial Times. Even so, ad rates and premium ad opportunities are shrinking as advertising becomes available on more websites.
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