The Impact of ICT on Entertainment

The Rise of the Internet In the UK today: A third of homes have broadband internet access In these homes, 25% of “media time” is spent accessing the internet. The internet can be used for: –Gaming –Pod-casts and music downloads –Streaming media –Finding out more about favourite artists and actors; many of these have their own sites and will reply to fans – a democratisation of the entertainment industry!

An End to Broadcasting? Many radio and television programmes are already available on the internet, with more to come CD sales are already in decline; will the sales of DVDs follow? Will television channels cease to exist in the future? Will the idea that the broadcaster decides when we watch things be alien to our children? Do you think you’d watch more or fewer programmes if they were all available on the internet?

Quality vs Convenience The BBC has received a lot of criticism for the quality of DAB (digital radio) as the quality was reduced to expand choice Music downloads are becoming more popular despite using lossy compression, while higher quality formats such as DVD-Audio and SACD have failed to take off Cameraphones are a popular way of taking photographs of family and friends Lots of internet audio and video (e.g. RealAudio) is of a low quality Are people happy to trade quality for convenience?