New devices and services, connected and smart, quickly reach homes with tablets, smartphones, consoles, ADSL boxes and connected TVs. The effective networking of all screens is now possible and will invite us to go deep into this improved digital universe. The Bain & Co study for the Forum d’Avignon 2011 offers to explore the implications of this triptych’s evolution – i.e. devices, services, cultural works - regarding culture’s diffusion and the cultural experience itself.

This study provides annalyses on the following questions: Will connected screens, and especially connected TVs, encourage an access to new cultural experiments? Will devices and connected screens make new formats emerge or deeply modify viewing and reading? Will connected television set up new “on demand” niche markets, which are likely to compete with thematic market? Who will be the winners of the connected screens’ revolution: editors and producers, Web services, telecommunication operators? Which will be the new economical balances between these players? 
 
Goals of the study:
Presenting the results of a consumer survey. The study tackles the current and upcoming (by the year 2015) uses of consumers demonstrate towards multiple broadcasting devices and the differences inferred in their relation with culture – the effect on time "consuming" cultural goods and services, new access modes and a new usage typology, distinction between public (multiple users in a home) and private usages. This study is carried out on three continents and five countries: Europe (France, United Kingdom), America (United States) and Asia (India, China).
 
Presenting case studies selected among the most updated markets and the most original initiatives. Concrete tracks will be explored: the possibilities offered by new devices in terms of discovering and broadcasting cultural goods and services, as well as models creating values. These examples will also illustrate the definition of the term “Over The Top” (OTT): this expression firstly designates contents supplied on demand in a connected environment and secondly refers to the universe of devices and services allowing this connection and the demand itself.
 
Analyzing the connected devices and services’ impact on the « cultural experience » through three prisms resulting from technology.
- Connected: access to a theoretically unlimited universe of contents
- Smart: ability of managing this “unlimited inventory”, and allowing at the same time personalization and social interactions.
- Interactive: new interfaces (touch-, voice sensitive, etc.) allowing an intuitive dialog with cultural works and the possibility of participating to the act of creation.

Learning more about the 2011 studies of the Forum d'Avignon
 
Learning more about the 2011 edition of the Forum d'Avignon

The culture experience reinvented, by Patrick Béhar, Partner, Bain & Cie

Within the framework of think tank of the Forum d'Avignon 2011, you prepared a study to be unveiled on the 17th of November. What are the top trends? Can you give us a preview of some key figures of the survey conducted in France, UK, USA, urban India and urban China?
We surveyed more than 3000 consumers across the world. First conclusion: penetration of connected devices could reach 60% of households across western markets by 2014, and up to 30% in urban India and China. Consumers show strong interest in connected entertainment and cultural experiences, with interest levels above 60%. However, effective impact on time spent and addressable markets varies significantly among media and experiences. Read all about it on November 17th!

Do these new connected screens and devices represent an opportunity for cultural industries?
Increased breadth and depth of offering and the raise of search engines and social networks as content platforms could broaden audiences for « midtail » content. However, challenges remain in terms of monetization and business models. The opportunity for more diversity and “more culture” will depend on competitive dynamics, as well as the preservation of the delicate financing equilibrium on which content creation relies.

Other questions asked to Patrick Béhar:  What are connected screens and services? What is your définition of Over the Top? How will these services and screens drive change in the cultural domain?

Read the interview online

The information age by Eric Scherer, Director of Future Media, digital strategy and Connected TV, France Televisions

What are connected screens and services ? What is your définition of Over the Top ? How will these services and screens drive change in the cultural domain ?
Screens and connected services are collectively known as "smart" smart phones, smart TV, tablets, and they have three common features:
- screens are connected to the internet
- devices connected with eachother which can communicate with eachother
- devices which accumulate increasing volumes of information about us

The Smartphone is now the centre of our digital lives, and 2011 saw the fusion of télévision and the internet, a phenomenon which will drive change in our cultural norms: consumption of culture becomes ubiquitous – 24/7 and anywhere. Media content becomes liquid and flows, frictionless, from one screen to another. Units of place and time will no longer be respected. New forms of storytelling, such as web documentaries, will emerge.

Other questions asked to Eric Scherer: You published the first édition this spring of MetaMedia entitled « Connected life » What are the révolutions, the disruptions that await us? What concrete examples can you give in the domain of the arts, culture and cultural industries? Do these new connected screens and devices represent an opportunity for cultural industries?

Read the interview online

Articles CULTURE IS FUTURE !

More than a hundred of daily articles on the international news of the Forum d’Avignon’s think tank topics.

Always Further – Which economy for catch-up TV services?
A Scholè Marketing study   (September 2011) "the economy of the catch-up TV" presents the future challenges of broadcasting in a connected world. There is a real audience success regarding catch-up TV, which allows an online  extension of channels offers, with dedicated and editorial platforms.  A third of the population uses the catch-up TV on the following audiovisual markets.
Read the article online

Did you know? – Connected devices in a few figures, explosion of the traffic
A recent IDATE  report (published on June 2011) "Mobile Video" presents the global market for mobile video, with its various economic models, its channels - via the premium model, but also free apps, mobile websites, pay-per-view - and depending on technologies and devices. The study predicts an explosion of the market and a significant increase of the time spent on mobiles.
Read the article online

Always further - Museums
To what extent the mobile devices are becoming the main actors of our museums? What uses do they create for the visitor? What are the strategies of the museums concerning the new technoliogies? The presentation of Loic Tallon  analyses the change of the visitor’s behavior in a cultural place as well as the strategies of the museum evolution due to the new technologies. 
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Always Further - Museum & the Web
The international annual symposium Museums and the Web, explores the social and technological aspects of culture, sciences and heritage online. Every year, the committee discerns the price of the best web site among the museums’. In 2010, the Indiana Museum of Art received it thanks to, among other things, its capacity to gather a lot of information and being ergonomic.
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Always further - Apps
Despite some already impressive figures (5 billion downloads in 2 years on Apple’s App store), it seems that the market of Smartphone’s’ application could only be at an early stage of development.  Indeed, a study by Forrester Research on the future of applications store predicts the development of an important offer, notably by Telco providers.
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Did you know? Number of users of mobile payment system will raise of 54,5%
The Gartner cabinet unveiled in 2010 few key figures on the evolution of mobile payment usage: The number of users of mobile payment system will raise of 54,5% between 2009 and 2010, meaning that there will be 108,6 millions of users in 2010 and the Asia Pacific is the principal geographic area concerned by the mobile payment, with 62,8 millions of users in 2010.
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Always further – Web Shows
The recent technological and economic changes call for the rethinking of the format and ways of broadcasting of certain cultural contents. The example of Shankaboot, first webserie of the Arab world produced by BBC World Service Trust, The Welded Tandem Picture Company and Babookah Films, is particularly representative of the efforts to adapt to new digital behaviors.
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Always further - Social Networks
Online social networking has become a whole part of new generations’ social activities. In this landscape, Facebook holds a particularly important place, having been one of the pioneers and remaining a major actor. This academic paper presents the evolution of user interaction in Facebook focusing on some points such as how do the users really interact.
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