Revenues from online 'creative content' in Europe will increase fourfold in the next four years to 8.3 billion euros (which is about 5 and half billion pounds). Or, at least, that's the opinion of a new European Commission report, which reckons that 20% of the music market will go online in the next four years, while 33% of the gaming market will come from online services. And while the movie industry will probably only draw 7% of its revenues from the net, that will be a massive increase in itself, amounting to over a billion euros in 2010 compared to just 18 million euros last year.
However, the EC report says that those tricky issues of outdated copyright laws and, in particular, the whole interoperability thing, could hinder that growth if not positively dealt with pronto. It also admitted piracy was a continuing problem as regards the growth of the digital content domain, although it said it felt that interoperability issues in the legitimate digital content sector help boost the popularity of illegal content sources, where content tends to be available in less constricting formats.
Commenting on the catchily titled 'Interactive Content and Convergence: Implications for the Information Society' report, Viviane Reding, Media Commissioner for the EU Information Society, said: "The long-awaited digital convergence is becoming an economic reality, creating great opportunities for Europe's consumers, content providers and technology industries. To capitalize [on new digital opportunities] may require casting a fresh eye at the technical and legal issues where a modernized and internal market-oriented approach would add value to European content".