Online Digital Content Explosion Presents Opportunities & Problems

eMarketer DRM Report Looks at the Balance of Copyright Protection and
Customers' Expectations


NEW YORK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 01/18/06 -- iTunes figured out how to
deliver online, Sony didn't. Guess which one is making money and which
one angered its consumers.


eMarketer's new report Digital Rights Management: Finding the Right
Balance looks at the increasingly fragile line that content providers
are walking. Consumers do not want to be blocked from content -- they
want it when and how it best suits them. If content is blocked, savvy
users will find it elsewhere. Content providers can either get a piece
of the action, or risk having their content avoided because of tight
content restrictions from DRM and restrictive terms-of-service
agreements.


"Sony's recent Digital Rights Management (DRM) fiasco highlighted the
tightrope content producers employing DRM technologies are currently
walking," says Ben Macklin, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the
new Digital Rights Management: Finding the Right Balance report.
"Authors, artists and publishers now have the technological tools to
better protect their digital creations but if they want consumers to
pay for their digital work, they must find the right balance between
copyright protection and customer's expectations."


Changing media consumption patterns and emerging broadband channels
are opening up new opportunities for content providers. TV still
presents content providers (and advertisers) with the largest audience
for high-bandwidth content with approximately 1 billion households
worldwide having a TV in 2005. And eMarketer forecasts that nearly
half of US broadband users in 2008 (76.5 million people) will be
regular users of Internet audio/video content, up from 31% in 2004.


"New channels for broadband content are emerging, with approximately
30 million broadband users accessing online audio or video content
each week in the US to access, record, and share digital content,"
says Mr. Macklin. "Used effectively, DRM technologies have the
potential to open up these new channels to traditional publishers and
producers."


eMarketer's Digital Rights Management report answers these key questions:



-- How big is the market for digital content?

-- How does DRM fit in with current laws and business models?

-- How are media consumption patterns changing?

-- What do consumers expect when accessing online content?

-- And many more...



Click to eMarketer.com for more information on eMarketer's Digital
Rights Management report.


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