大象传媒

Cheaper broadband access is making it easier for people around the world to publish and share their own videos and photos via the web. The sharp rise in consumer-created content being posted on the internet is forcing established media companies to rethink their business models. And, with under-18s forming a third of the world's 6.5 billion population, the media are focusing on the youth market.

For the 大象传媒, this means its long-term strategy has to be "to move beyond broadcasting, down the distribution chain into find, play, and share services"

Content-sharing websites like YouTube and MySpace let their users chat to each other, and give each one a personal webspace that can host images or video clips, and be used as a blog. MySpace - bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 2005 for almost US$600m - had over 100m registered users in September this year, with around 1.5m new users signing up globally every week. YouTube had 34m visitors in August, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. It has recently been bought by Google for US$1.65 billion.

With young people spending millions of hours on these sites, media groups and investors are looking for ways to make money from them, through advertising or other revenue streams. Murdoch and Google must be confident of eventually turning a profit. News Corp reportedly plans to launch the MySpace brand in China, the world's largest media market with over 1.3 billion people.


As young audiences spend more time in online communities, they are turning away from the 'traditional' media. A study of 10,000 consumers in nine countries published this summer by media consultancy Accenture found that 56% of under-24s want to create and share their own content, and 44% of that age group prefer watching video on the internet rather than on TV.

In the UK, the regulator Ofcom reported in August that, on average, 15- to 24-year-olds watched TV for one hour less per day than the average viewer. And a smaller proportion of their time was spent viewing public service broadcasting channels - down from 74% of total viewing among this age group in 2001 to 58% today. With the internet playing a greater role in their lives, this group's radio listening and newspaper reading has declined too.

TV channels, especially those aimed at the youth market, are aware that younger audiences are spending more time away from the TV screen. To retain their interest, they need to provide them with ways to contribute as well as consume.

For the 大象传媒, this means its long-term strategy has to be "to move beyond broadcasting, down the distribution chain into find, play, and share services," Ashley Highfield, 大象传媒 Director of New Media and Technology, told this year's Edinburgh International Television Festival. Kumu Puri of Accenture describes it as a shift "from an appointment-to-view TV culture to a TV-on-my-terms one". This trend can only accelerate as the 'MySpace generation' grows up.

Peter Feuilherade is an analyst at , reporting on media industry developments around the world. 大象传媒 Monitoring tracks over 3,000 TV, radio, press, internet and news agency sources.