trends in TMT

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Global Trends in Technology, Media & Telecommunications

What issues are top-of-mind for executives in Technology, Media & Entertainment, and Telecommunications (TMT)? Our essay series offers succinct insights from global TMT leaders about opportunities for success across the rapidly changing TMT ecosystem.

Future in the balance? How business leaders around the world are pursuing the advantages of AI—and what you can learn from their experience

Paul Sallomi, Global Technology, Media & Entertainment and Telecommunications Industry Leader, and Global Technology Sector Leader

As nations around the world dedicate investment, incentives, and talent to developing the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI), more and more business leaders are coming to view AI as a catalyst for the next great economic expansion. But lacking a well-developed AI strategy, many worry about missing out on potential gains.

Deloitte’s latest State of AI in the Enterprise survey takes the global pulse of AI, exploring structural and financial implications for business leaders. To find out how early adopters in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, France, the UK, and the US are approaching AI initiatives, read on—or download the full report here.

'Deep Fiber' infrastructure: Unlocking the potential of 5G

Craig Wigginton, Global Telecommunications Sector Leader

Momentum is growing around 5G, the fifth generation of wireless technology, slated for rollout around the world in coming years. 5G technology promises to usher in a new, ultra-connected age of digitally networked devices, from phones, tablets, and televisions to refrigerators, delivery drones, manufacturing equipment, and automobiles.

Wireless networks were at a similar inflection point as 4G services launched early in the decade. The United States took action as government made new spectrum available and carriers responded to accommodate twenty-fold growth in global mobile data traffic. The investment in wireless network infrastructure rewarded consumers with better performance within coverage zones at affordable prices, and resulted in robust economic growth. A transformative moment is coming with 5G, but with two important differences. First, the economic stakes are likely to be much higher, where connected devices, applications, and business models could dramatically stimulate economic productivity. Second, the United States is not as well prepared to take full advantage of the potential, lacking needed fiber infrastructure close to the end customers—also termed “deep fiber”—in order to carry the increased data loads beyond just the radio access network (RAN)—where much of 5G technology is focused.

Augmented reality: will 2018 be the breakthrough year?

Mark Casey, Global Media & Entertainment Sector Leader

2018 looks to be a year of progress and experimentation for smartphone-based augmented reality (AR). Over a billion smartphone users will create AR content at least once this year, Deloitte Global predicts; 300 million will be monthly creators, and tens of millions will make and share content weekly. Tens of thousands of apps incorporating AR capabilities will likely become available during the year, and by year’s end, billions of smartphone users will probably have downloaded an app or operating system update that incorporates AR content creation capability. In all, billions of people are likely to view AR content created on a phone this year.

Thus far, smartphone AR creations typically have been photographs or primitive animations that are exaggerated, artificial, and cartoonish. Starting in 2018, that may begin to change. AR content created on a smartphone will likely look increasingly photorealistic and will often be recorded and shared as video.

Photorealistic AR is being enabled by a combination of software and hardware advances, one of the most significant of which is the launch of dedicated AR frameworks in smartphone operating systems. As of October 2017, a few hundred million smartphones had dedicated support for AR. By the end of 2018, about 800 million smartphones will likely have both an operating system with dedicated AR support and hardware sufficient to power it.

Consumers: getting smarter about smartphones?

Craig Wigginton, Global Telecommunications Sector Leader

For nearly two decades, Deloitte Global has issued an annual Predictions report, which focuses on trends, transformation and opportunity across the telecommunications, technology, media and entertainment ecosystem. This year, one of our 11 Predictions incorporated data from Deloitte’s recent Global Mobile Consumer Survey to consider how consumer smartphone behavior may evolve in 2018 and beyond.

When looking at how consumers may interact with their mobile devices going forward, Deloitte Global predicts that most adults of all ages will continue to be comfortable using their phones a lot—even hundreds of times per day. Instead of “always, anytime, for anything” usage, however, we predict that consumers will become more focused about their smartphone interactions, and will consider changing their behavior usage when it is distracting them from activities that they want (or need) to concentrate on more fully. Already, we’ve seen an effort to avoid distracted driving; consumers in 2018 may also take steps to limit distracted sleeping, distracted walking and distracted talking.

2018: A watershed year for machine learning?

Paul Sallomi, Global Technology, Media & Entertainment and Telecommunications Industry Leader, and Global Technology Sector Leader

Deloitte Global recently released its annual Predictions report, which looks at transformation and opportunity in tech, media and telecom over the next one to five years. In part of our report, Deloitte Global predicts that in 2018, large and medium-sized enterprises will intensify their use of machine learning (ML)—an artificial intelligence, or cognitive, technology that enables systems to learn and improve from exposure to data without being programmed explicitly. Deloitte Global predicts that the number of implementations and pilot projects using the technology will double compared with 2017, and they will have doubled again by 2020.

Machine learning

Sign up now! Global growth in digital subscriptions

Mark Casey, Global Media & Entertainment Sector Leader

Recently, Deloitte Global released its 2018 Predictions report, which considers what trends may transform and disrupt media, entertainment, technology and telecommunications in 2018 and beyond. This year’s report contains 11 separate Predictions, many relevant to companies in the media and entertainment ecosystem.

In one Prediction, Deloitte Global asserts that by the end of 2018, 50 percent of adults in developed countries will have at least two online-only media subscriptions, and by the end of 2020, that average will have doubled to four. In total, Deloitte Global estimates there will be 680 million subscriptions and about 350 million subscribers this year.

The report further predicts that a fifth of adults in developed countries will pay for or have access to at least five paid-for online media subscriptions, and by the end of 2020, they will have 10. For these adults, aggregate spend on digital subscriptions they have access to (paid for by themselves or by someone in the household) is likely to average over $100 per month by 2020, or over $1,200 annually.

Here’s a quick overview of how different categories of digital subscriptions may grow.

Digital subscriptions

Valleys of the World: A virtual fund-of-funds approach to frontier investing

Mark Casey, Global Media & Entertainment Sector Leader

I’ve been thinking lately about the accelerating corporate trend of setting up venture funds—and the seeming inevitability of Silicon Valley as the destination for these funds. Sure, some of the world’s greatest innovation stories have emerged from the corridor between San Jose and San Francisco. Sure, the Valley is inundated with unicorns. Sure, there are thousands of promising start-ups there that need financial backing today. All those things may be true, but still I wonder whether there are other ways to invest, innovate, and grow in the venture world—or if doing so really does require making an “all in” Silicon Valley play.

mark casey

Three keys to success for adopting a flexible-consumption business model

Paul Sallomi, Global Technology, Media & Entertainment and Telecommunications Industry Leader, and Global Technology Sector Leader

Today, the world’s internet users number in the billions. Technology-enabled newcomers are disrupting industries, from healthcare and transportation to retail and media. And companies of all kinds are pushing the technological envelope to the point that self-driving cars and drone-based product-delivery systems are becoming viable.

It might seem that the digital era, which took flight in earnest a quarter-century ago with the popularization of the World Wide Web, is already mature. But it’s actually just beginning, especially for the enterprise. The changes of the past few decades—in how we communicate, shop, work, consume media, and more—are minor in comparison with what’s to come.

Three Steps to More Successful Media M&A Deals

Mark Casey, Global Media & Entertainment Sector Leader

As Warren Buffet says, “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” Among M&A dealmakers, too often the focus is on the price aspect of the deal—CEOs haggling over and agreeing to terms. But what happens after the handshake—how the companies are integrated—is given short shrift. The result? Deals that fail to deliver the expected value.

This is particularly true of deals involving media companies, which can be vastly different from companies in other sectors, and difficult to integrate as a result.

Smart media M&A dealmakers see the handshake as just the beginning of any given deal. Before that fateful moment, they look forward to assess whether and how their companies can be integrated in three important areas: culture, operations, and cash flow and forecasting.

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