The Australian communications and media sector will spend $5.7 billion this year, up from $5.5 billion this year, IDC predicted in a market report released today.
The amount could reach $6.6 billion in 2016, representing a compound annual growth rate of 4.4 per cent, IDC said.
The lower latency and faster broadband speeds to be provided by the National Broadband Network (NBN) and 4G mobile services will enhance user experience of Internet content and pave the way for new applications, IDC said.
"Apart from the NBN and 4G rollouts that are driving expansionary spending on cloud and mobility, we believe investments in social applications and big data analytics are essential for media companies to support top-line growth,” said IDC analyst David So.
“By capitalising on the viewers' social and interest graphs, media firms can generate advertising revenue more efficiently and effectively.”
The growth of tablets will spur more investment by media companies on IT services like mobile apps and enterprise software for collaboration, said So.
"The engagement of the social TV by people interacting with their devices (e.g. tablets, smartphones) while watching television is growing rapidly due to social media and applications,” he said.
“As such, these industry changes present vast amounts of emerging business opportunities for ICT vendors.”
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