Feature

Sports and Leisure content set to boom

Networks & Network Services
According to Juniper Research the global market for sports, leisure and information content is set to grow from its 2006 value of just under $4.2bn to $9.5bn by 2011.
The increasing influence of mobile video enabled on 3G networks will drive the uptake of many mobile sports, leisure and information services over the next five years, say the analysts.

The largest geographic market is forecast to be in Europe, which is expected to account for 40% of revenues over the 2006 to 2011 period, with Asia Pacific contributing 33% and the rapidly growing North American market 18%. Asia Pacific is forecast to generate the most infotainment traffic over the period, but higher price levels will make Europe the largest revenue generator.

Juniper reckons video has the potential to transform the user experience of many infotainment services, provided the quality is good enough – and the rollout of 3G services will provide a platform for that.

Juniper’s Bruce Gibson commented: “Sports services are getting repeated boosts by high profile global and regional sporting events. 2008 will be a significant year in market growth with EURO 2008 and the Beijing Olympics.

“The need to acquire mobile sports rights is keeping sports service prices high and these services require high quality and timely content. On the other hand community applications with user generated content have relatively low cost content acquisition and minimise much of the complexity of content acquisition and updating. We see growth opportunities in both market sectors.”