While the Media & Entertainment industry (M&E) was one of the first sectors of business to navigate digital disruption, its transformation is far from over.

According to PwC’s annual “2018 Media & Entertainment Outlook,” the distinctions between print and digital, video games and sports, wireless and fixed Internet access, pay-TV and OTT, and social and traditional media are blurring. Convergence will be a big M&E theme in the years ahead.

Streaming services, TV companies, and social networks are competing over both conventional sports and e-sports rights. TV companies, telecoms, tech companies, over-the-top (OTT) operators, and movie studios are competing to provide TV content. Radio stations, podcast companies, and streaming services are competing to give radio and podcast content. Brands are creating content to engage the same audiences that M&E companies are after too.

To succeed, companies must re-envision every aspect of what they do and how they do it. This means having access to, the right technology and premium content, delivered cost-effectively to an audience that is engaged with the brand. During the same period, Virtual Reality (VR), OTT video, and internet advertising will be among the fastest-growing revenue generators for M&E companies in the U.S. The VR market is quickly transforming into an entertainment and productivity platform at the same time.

OTT video revenue for media and entertainment (HBO Go, Hulu, Netflix) for the U.S. market reached $20.1 billion in 2017, up 15.2% YoY. Data traffic levels will grow by a 22.3% CAGR, reaching 397.8 trillion megabytes in 2022 over the same period. This report attributes the growth in data consumption to consumers’ growing appetite for video content, which will account for 85.6% of total data consumption in 2022. 5G will contribute to this significant boost. The opportunity at the end is the growing access to people absorbing content.