This study examines 10 emerging trends sure to have a major influence on the media sector:

1. Obstacles ahead for online advertising—one barrier may be the growing antipathy to the online advertisement itself.
2. e-Reference to replace ebook—while there is significant benefit from digitizing the world, not all texts become more useful or more valuable when digitized. 
3. The living room may become Public Enemy Number One—the media and consumer electronics industries should consider how the carbon footprint of the living room can be reduced without the need to revert to antiquated technology, such as CTR tubes and analog transmission.
4. Traditional lives on thanks to Internet TV—the global traditional television sector, despite the occasional shock, should remain in good health throughout the year, and there is a good chance that Internet television will have contributed to traditional television’s fortunes. 
5. Overcoming online piracy may not mean the end to counterfeit content—while 2008 may be the year in which the media industry manages to start to control one form of piracy – the overall campaign against piracy needs to be sustained.
6. The movie theater becomes more than just movies—the movie theater’s run of strong performance provides the ideal backdrop for change, with the move to digital implying considerable investment, which is likely best accommodated while revenues are still strong.
7. Time for music to be tangible again—the industry could evolve from offering digital downloads for transfer to a device, to selling pre-recorded MP3 players.
8. Online is moving (slowly) to the front page—2008 may be the year in which it becomes increasingly commonplace for traditional media to acknowledge the existence of the online world.
9. Offshoring gets bigger and more creative—2007 saw one of the first media offshoring contracts worth in excess of $1 billion, covering “end-to-end” full services including IT, operations, finance and accounting, HR and research. 2008 may see further deals of this scale.
10. Converging technology and media – don’t forget the business plan—for the combination of media and technology to be worth more than the sum of its parts, a number of factors need to be aligned, particularly a robust business plan.

The report includes recommendations from the Technology, Media & Telecommunications industry group on how to take advantage of these emerging trends. Read the full report in the PDF file attachment below: