Audience Trends

CLASSWORK:

Audience Trends

Technology is an essential in society, it is always evolving and developing to suit the public’s needs and wants. In the film industry, technology is everything, affecting distribution, quality of films, and even what can be accomplished in a film, like CGI and stunts. Media consumption is affected by multiple influences, included, but not limited to availability, price, quality, etc.

We, as a society, have always valued convenience. In media this took the form of being able to watch films at home. Originally movies could only be seen in cinemas, in black and white, but society began to demand portability and lowered prices, causing business opportunities for inventors who created new machines to match the demand. The first of these major breakthroughs in this type of technology was the invention of VHS, which meant that it was possible to watch films at home. Almost anyone in the First World could get one and buying films was not overly expensive.

After VHS, a Japanese invention in the 1970s, Laser Discs, the predecessor to the DVD came out in the late 1970s. These forms of technology both stayed relevant until DVDs and Blue Ray came along. However, as of now Streaming Services have now ushered movie watchers around the world into a new era of film consumption, dominating the market. Streaming Services such as Netflix contain, what seems to be endless hours of entertainment, all for one fixed monthly price, and they can be viewed Smart Device, seemingly the ultimate convenience. This is evidenced by almost all DVD stores closing, globally and huge growth in Streaming Services. Netflix has gained 15.8 million subscribers in the last year and saw a quarterly revenue of $5.77 billion. This corresponds to the pandemic Covid-19 as people would not be able to go out and get a DVD, but Streaming Services are contactless and seemingly endless.

 Social Media has become a vital part of Society nowadays, almost everyone has either Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. Companies such as Warner Brothers, Disney and more have utilised the aforementioned platforms to advertise films. According to the company “Broadband Search” who conducted research in 2020 into how much time the average person spends on Social Media, with the result showing it to be 2 hours and 4 minutes, 8.586% of their day. With the power to advertise on these platforms, filmmakers have huge amounts of influence and reach countless potential viewers. Films are produced year-round with a surprising amount of films never seeing success, the major blockbusters go to film with a DVD release a few months later. More films are now going straight to DVD or Streaming Services, especially with the Covid-19 situation. More and more movies are going straight to Streaming Services, as it is cheaper and easier for film makers, as they can let companies like Netflix do the majority of advertising, and DVDs don’t need to be made, transported and put at risk of being damaged.