Wall-sized screens displaying gigabytes of digital information let users wallow in scores of programs, sales presentations or work files.

Fans flock to the neighbourhood movie theatre to see digital webcasts of world championship tournaments or Broadway shows in real time.

Enthusiasts from around the globe spend hours together in realtime, playing interactive online games that feature characters from pop songs, books or movies.

They use hundreds of types of platforms, devices and networks, all served by the standardization of digital formatting and realtime language translation.

Now more content is available in more formats than ever, and everybody wants something different from every piece of content.

– An edited version of IBM’s vision of the 2010 media future.

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By 2010 Canadians will be enveloped by digital content. It will surround us and come at us from every angle on devices we know now — video screens, PDAs, cellphones, laptops — and ones that haven’t even been invented yet.

But at least we’ll be in charge. Savvy media companies will stop pushing pre-packaged content at us and make us co-creators and collaborators instead.

As well, we’ll get our entertainment, news and information when we want it and the way we want it.

And we’ll be able to take all those bits and pieces — a song or a news story or a chapter at a time — and package it together ourselves for our own consumption. In other words, say goodbye to passivity.

Media companies that don’t adjust to this will likely die.

At least that’s the way IBM’s Institute for Business Value Future sees it, in a report, Media and Entertainment 2010, released Thursday that outlines what media companies must do to stay ahead of the curve.

“What I think we’re driving at in this report is that consumers want to create their own content and create their own personal view of it,” said Sarah Shortreed, media and entertainment lead with IBM BusinessConsulting Services Canada.

“And people want to buy what they want to buy, when they want to buy it, where they want to buy it.”

Shortreed said we’re starting to see precursors of media co-creation in the fan input into such movies as The Hulk and Lord of the Rings.

“Some of the feedback from those fan clubs directed the course of the movie. Characters were included or excluded or included in scenes or not in others based on that fan club feedback.”

And she said writers are using f (Web logs) online to put together their next books.

“And so the interaction has started and I think there will be more and more of that over time.”

By 2010, said Shortreed, there will be clear winners and losers among media companies.

Those that survive will be more open, will deliver their information (copy protected against piracy, of course) through variable packaging and pricing, will know their customers and business partners intimately and will offer media to consumers on demand and around the clock.

Of course this will come with something of a sociological price. We’ll be monitored — our buying habits, our needs, and even our buzz as never before, so that companies can at least attempt to stay a step ahead of us.

“That kind of business intelligence and know of our customers at a more intimate levels can drive the niche markets,” said Shortreed. “You need to get to know your customers beyond just a number on a ratings page.”

This in-depth customer analysis will also aid media companies, says the report, in arriving at how they package digital media for variable fees. So forget flat pricing.

An identical movie or song or article could be offered on a sliding price scale, depending on such complex variables as age, sales tracking or even the rarity of the material itself.

Shortreed said that in Europe and Asia today the pricing on soft-drink machines is already adjusted to the climate.

“On a hot day your drink is $2 and on a cold day is $1,” said Shortreed. “So these kinds of capabilities are out there to find some driver that would affect price and these things are going to start to come into play in the media industry.”

Shortreed said that the DVD of a movie might, for example, be priced higher if you could buy it in the theatre lobby on the day of the film’s release, rather than months later at the video store.

“I just saw the movie, I’m excited about it and if you offered me that DVD as I stepped out of the movie theatre, would I not pay a premium? Of course this would require the release date to be shortened down to zero, but the trends show that this could happen over the next five years or so.”

One major change will be that — unlike today’s music environment where companies are fighting to keep fees flowing for content — many independent artists and producers will offer content, including music, short movies and videos for free.

They’ll make their money from product tie-ins and product placement, Webcasts of concerts and, naturally, fan merchandise.

“This is another trend we’ve identified, the diversification of income streams,” said Shortreed. “So not all of the income has to come from selling the production or selling the advertising,”

The report also says that fragmentation of media will increase.

“And that’s one of the reasons why you have to target a product at a niche you will know will want to buy it,” said Shortreed.

As well, just as in the sales of MP3s, where people will pay for just one song but don’t want the whole album, consumers will be increasingly paying for smaller and smaller chunks of content.

Among the steps the reports recommends that media companies take are:

– Create or convert all content to digital formats.

– Be open for delivery, in multiple packages, with variable pricing and always-on customer service.

– Open digital doors to let consumers contribute, produce or create dynamic content.

– Manage openly and communicate in real-time through digital infrastructure.

– Use new digital technology to increase business intelligence.

– Become an on-demand business.

Shortreed said that because some of these trends are already under way and the changes will be gradual, by the time we reach 2010 we’ll wonder how people could have ever lived in a time where we took our media just the way it was offered to us.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004