Audiovisual communication in the age of convergence

As a result of the convergence of digital media the digital media industry is changing. Lower prices and a higher level of services are expected for the benefit of consumers, not only because of the reusability of standardized tools, but also because of a higher level of competition, as the tools are supplied by multiple, competing manufacturers. Furthermore it can be expected that the consumer's control of digital media will also promote the competition between content providers themselves (see Figure for a diagram of the digital media infrastructure).

Open standards for digital media, the deployment of broadband access and the introduction of Digital Rights Management make possible new television related services. A whole range of digital media business models will gradually complement and possibly replace traditional television business models based on analogue content distribution (like e.g. free-TV, pay-TV).

Content distribution will shift from mass markets to niche markets, as electronic commerce aggregates and makes profitable what were previously unprofitable transactions ("the long tail").

A plethora of audiovisual content will be produced and will be made available on the internet where it is available "free of charge". Independent content creators can't afford big storage and transaction cost. There will be business opportunities for free content hosting services.

The social aspects that are built into content hosting services become more important. Content creators will unionize and organize their content around common interests (see e.g. flickr and dailymotion).

For end-users it will be more and more difficult to identify high-value content. Social bookmarking services (see e.g. del.icio.us) allow end-users to describe and valuate content. These metadata services have the potential to replace traditional traditional television programme guides.

Television is still the predominate medium, but a greater choice of content and content related services will finally result in more selective and media savvy end-users.

In this situation it will be the task of publishers to provide content related services for the benefit of creators and end-users of audiovisual content.

To be adopted, these services have to be simple. Users want see the gain, see that they are in the center, see that service providers care about them.