Entertainment and Media Revenues Rebounding Strongly from Pandemic Slump
The global entertainment and media (E&M) industry has regained its momentum, with revenues outpacing the economy as a whole, according to the latest Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2021-2025 from PwC. The $2+ trillion industry is on track to grow 6.5 percent in 2021 and 6.7 percent in 2022, fueled by strong demand for digital content and advertising. The renewed growth follows a challenging 2020, when in-person entertainment plummeted, including a 71 percent decline in movie theater box office revenues.
According to the study, streaming video-on-demand (SVOD) is projected to grow at a CAGR of 10.6 percent to 2025, making it an $81.3 billion industry. Meanwhile, cinema revenues are projected to rebound in 2021 as lockdowns ease but will not recover to pre-pandemic levels until at least 2024.
Video game and e-sports revenues continue their rapid ascent, reaching $147.7 billion in 2020, with a 5.7 percent CAGR projected to expand the segment to become an almost $200 billion business by 2025. Further, music is poised for robust growth following a massive 74.4 percent slump in live music revenues in 2020.
IBM to Acquire DevOps Startup BoxBoat
IBM is set to acquire BoxBoat Technologies, a DevOps consultancy and enterprise Kubernetes certified service provider. BoxBoat will extend IBM’s container strategy and implementation services portfolio to further advance IBM’s hybrid cloud strategy and accelerate Red Hat OpenShift adoption globally.
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, BoxBoat helps clients establish containers and Kubernetes as core enablers for cloud solutions. BoxBoat will join IBM Global Business Services’ fast-growing Hybrid Cloud Services business, enhancing IBM’s capacity to meet rising client demand for container strategy and the critical people and process components of the cloud transformation journey.
Gururaj Rao Move on from MMFSL; Joins Aditya Birla Health Insurance
Gururaj Rao has joined Aditya Birla Health Insurance as EVP and CTO after a 10 years long stint at Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services (MMFSL) as VP and CIO. At Mahindra, Rao was responsible for IT across all the non-banking financial services business including retail loans and mortgages, SME corporate loans, consumer durables financing, financial products and distribution.
In his new role, he will be spearheading the technology domain and will leverage his areas of expertise in driving innovation at the health insurance firm.
