Page 24 - 06_Bafta ACADEMY_Winners_ok

Focus on Interactive
With the advent of new technologies and the rise of the internet, it appeared that the world of traditional film and mainstream entertainment was going to change forever. Michael Comish, President, International, of AtomShockwave, explains why the future
looks promising for both.
The digital revolution is all about choice - a choice that will be much more important than just having an opportunity to watch a film on your mobile phone or watch an old episode of The Simpsons from your PC.
The real revolution is in the vast level of interactivity and personalisation that this ‘new generation’ of entertain- ment will bring. It is the fundamental change in the relationship between those who create the entertainment and the people who watch it – the consumer.
In short, the digital revolution will significantly alter both the way people are entertained, how and what entertainment is produced for them to consume.
From the consumer’s point of view, it is this breadth of choice and quality of the entertainment that programmers pro- vide that will determine whether this new technology is a ‘workable’ entertainment channel. The content on offer, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, will be tailored to individual users tastes based on stated preferences and previous viewing.
For online users, this means high quality entertainment shown in a much more compelling fashion. Unlike the MTV generation, the online generation’s pen- chant for short, sharp bursts of entertain- ment are not so much the result of short attention spans but indicative of the lifestyles they lead.
Historically, ‘entertainment’ has been made up of: completely immersive enter- tainment experience, such as the movies; programmer driven experiences, i.e. watch- ing TV; brick-and-mortar driven experi- ences like renting a film; or more flexible formats (but lacking the panache of the moving picture) as reading a newspaper.
Today, new technologies, such as the internet, bridge all of these by offer- ing entertainment we want, when we want it. The internet has already changed our traditional patterns of work, rest and play – therefore it is only appro- priate that the medium adapts the speed and quality of entertainment to match our new requirements.
It would be wrong to think that the future has arrived. Streaming media has come a long way in a short space of time and continues to make giant strides but the technology today is not yet good enough. Internet penetration in Europe varies from 10-50%, broadband streaming to consumers is very limited, Internet access is just starting to take off through TV sets, and WAP hasn’t exactly set the world of mobile phones alight.
Yet the potential is there. The mobile networks paid billions of pounds to secure 3G licenses precisely because they see the transmission of pictures as well as sound as the next step forward in the development of their marketplace. Even now, recent estimates show that 200 mil- lion people are online, 75% of whom are searching for entertainment. Bear in mind that mobile phone uptake has far out- stripped internet penetration and you begin to see just one of the potential mar- kets waiting to be tapped.
Current trends suggest new forms of entertainment and new entertainment companies will be born. We are already seeing this in the UK as the proliferation of cable channels dilutes the ‘traditional’ broadcasters market shares and the suc- cessful players look to extend and diversi- fy to mirror the wider choice that con- sumers can consume.
In order to survive, entertainment companies will have to learn to operate in the new landscape, with new revenue streams available across different devices.
The pace of these advances is dic- tated by the technology that is available. Constrained by slow access speeds and PC-based viewing, online entertainment is currently limited to independent short films, MP3 formatted music and digital
media – forms of entertainment that are both Internet friendly, and under-distrib- uted. However, as the technology catch- es up, usage will grow on TV and wire- less applications.
The uptake of broadband will drive this (estimates suggest that nearly 70% of online Americans will have broadband access by 2004) as will a mobile market estimated at more than 1 billion con- sumers by 2003. This is why global online entertainment revenues, even two years down the line, are estimated to be some- where close to $5 billion.
Even now, we are seeing that it is economically possible to offer specialist content and as the online entertainment market increases in size and maturity, we will see mainstream media companies beginning trials of a much broader range of content. Convergence is the key.
Whilst the headlines are made by the likes of AOL/Time Warner and Vivendi/Seagrams, the recent merger between shockwave.com and AtomFilms highlights how forward-looking entertain- ment companies are anticipating the changes in the entertainment landscape, offering consumers far broader access to quality entertainment as more and more
channels offer a viable way of getting that content.
AtomShockwave pro- vides content that makes the most of current techni- cal parameters with its catalogue of animations, games and interactive entertainment as well as providing high quality con-
tent to the more traditional entertainment channels such as cable TV and airlines.
However, look two years into the future – it is companies like AtomShockwave that are perfectly placed to dominate the entertainment that technology will deliver to the con- sumer on their mobile devices, internet enabled TVs and broadband connec- tions in their homes...
In 2003, high quality short films such as the BAFTA nominated Periwig Maker will be the premium, perfectly formatted con- tent for consumption anytime, everywhere.
Now the technology has caught up, the short-form content including films and animations by big-name talent such as George Clooney, Bill Plympton, Aardman and Tim Burton among others can be enjoyed by audiences around the world whether they are travelling by plane, train, in a hotel room in Germany, at a bar in Ukraine, at a shopping mall in the USA, surfing the internet, looking for entertainment to download onto their Pocket PC, watching TV or as a sub- scriber to a VOD Service.
Now we are at a point where con- sumers can at least imagine a future in which they can programme their own
ENTERTAINMENTAN
ENTERTAINMENTAN
22
Y
Y