Hong Kong – Over the next five years, digital technologies will become increasingly widespread across all segments of entertainment & media (E&M) as the digital migration continues to expand according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2009-2013. “The migration of ad dollars to digital has been on-going,” said Marcel Fenez global managing partner, entertainment and media practice PricewaterhouseCoopers, “but masked to some extent when the economy was strong. Now that we are in recession, digital’s gain at the expense of traditional media is very apparent.” Fenez told Television Asia Plus that advertising revenues will recover, but will never return to pre-recession levels. “This change is not cyclical, it’s structural; there will be nowhere to hide from digital migration. Even by 2013, advertising revenues will still be below 2007 levels.” As a whole, the global entertainment and media market, including both consumer and advertising spending, will grow by 2.7 percent compounded annually for the entire forecast period to $1.6 trillion in 2013. PricewaterhouseCoopers expects to see a 3.9 percent drop in 2009 and a mere 0.4 percent advance in 2010, with a period of much faster growth during the remaining period to 7.1 per cent in 2013. Responses to the recession will vary from country to country and region to region with some territories showing little ill effects while others experience steep declines. Together with Latin America, Asia Pacific leads global growth with an annual compound rate 4.5 percent through to 2013 fuelled by growth in China (9.5 percent CAGR), India (10.7 per cent CAGR) and Indonesia (12.9 per cent CAGR). The decline in advertising spend which started in the final quarter of 2008 accounts for the majority of the overall decline as consumer spending in the sector proves to be resilient especially in the areas of spending on internet access and subscription television which both grow. Over the period to 2013 the fastest growing segments of the E&M industry will be subscription television (7.3 percent compounded annually), video games (8.5 percent CAGR), filmed entertainment (4.7 per cent CAGR) and internet access spending (5.4 percent CAGR). However the economic downturn does not change the underlying drivers for digital migration and will more likely influence their pace and power and hence the timing of industry change. The case for digital migration, however, will continue to vary across geographies depending on the availability of efficient and cost-effective broadband and mobile infrastructure.