Over the next five years, digital technologies will become increasingly widespread across all segments of entertainment and media (E&M) as digital migration continues to expand, says PricewaterhouseCoopers, a multinational consulting firm, in its annual Global Entertainment & Media Outlook, covering the period 2009-2013.

The current economic downturn has accelerated and intensified the digital migration among both providers and consumers of content, says PWC.  It highlights that Asia-Pacific is the o­nly region where it expects spending to grow in 2009, with a projected 0.2 per cent increase. For the forecast period as a whole, spending will rise in Asia-Pacific at a 4.5 per cent compound annual rate to $413 billion in 2013 from $331 billion in 2008.

Japan at $149 billion is by far the dominant country in Asia, and second world-wide behind the United States. Excluding Japan, E&M spending in Asia-Pacific will increase at a projected 7.1 per cent.

PWC predicts that in Vietnam, E&M spending will grow at slower rate than the overall economy in the downturn phase and then leapfrog GDP as the recovery gathers pace and consumer spending picks up.

The value of Vietnam’s E&M market tripled in five years from 2004 to 2009 and be expected to exceed $2 billion in 2013.  Although in 2008, PWC ranked Vietnam as the fourth fastest growing country for E&M, right after Saudi Arabia/Pan Arabia, India and Indonesia, this year Vietnam jumps to the first position.

In the period of 2009-13, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of Vietnam is projected to be the highest o­ne in the world at 16.7 per cent, followed by Saudi Arabia/Pan Arabia at 15.1 per cent and Pakistan at 13 per cent.

Economic expansion is helping drive the large increases expected in most of the high-growth countries. Infrastructure improvements, particularly in the areas of broadband and multichannel TV as well as mobile telephony, will also be principal drivers. In Vietnam, the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Groups (VNPT) invested in a national broadband network in 2008, increasing capacity to 200Gbps.

Meanwhile, the Asia American Gateway being built by Alcatel-Lucent and NEC - which will connect Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam with Hawaii and the West Coast of the US - is expected to become operational in 2009. Vietnam still has substantial room for growth due to low penetration in many categories of E&M. In line with global trends, we expect growing internet access spending, TV advertising and TV subscriptions to lead the industry’s expansion in Vietnam.

The number of broadband households in Vietnam will reach approximate 3.75 millions in 2013 but the broadband household penetration of Vietnam will be o­nly 18.6 per cent compared to the region’s average rate at 29.6 per cent. It proves that there are rooms for broadband growth in Vietnam.

Another component of internet access spending is mobile access. Asia-Pacific has by far the largest mobile access market in the world, at $39.3 billion in 2008, constituting 76 per cent of the global total. The top three countries including Japan, South Korea and China represented 96 per cent of the Asia-Pacific total and 73 per cent of the global total. Vietnam mobile access market is still small and expected to reach $400 million in 2013 but Vietnam is expected to show the highest 2009-13 compounded annual growth rate in the region at 81.4 per cent.

Vietnam’s TV advertising is projected to reach $425 million at 2013, nearly four times its value in 2004. The 2009-13 CAGR is expected to be the second highest in Asia-Pacific at 12.8 per cent right after Indonesia at 13.2 per cent.