The Home Entertainment Industry & the Hyper-consumer: Consumption with or without Industrial Participation

ICT enabled the development of disruptive technologies, which – so the proposition – are having a potential that participants on various levels of the Home Entertainment Industry and its value chain may face discontinuous conditions due to shifting consumption preferences (Christensen et al. 2004, Chesbrough. 2006, Trott. 2008, Kusek et al. 2006, Tidd. 2005).

ICT-technology allows consumers to exclude the established industry, which offers pre-recorded content, most times on media, whose content cannot be altered and forces consumers to purchase the content, which this industry has pre-selected, while download platforms offer a huge variety of content, which can be selected due to individual taste and preferences fuelling the experiential prosumer and community concepts of hyper-consumers (Lipovetsky. 2009, Antorini, 2009, Benghozi, 2006, Benghozi et al. 2000, 2005). Permanently decreasing sales quantities of pre-recorded content are confronted with increasing downloads and exchange quantities on c2c and P2P level (RIAA. 2006, 2006, IFPI. 2006, musik.woche, 2007).

So far, legal barriers and copy protection have proved to be an obstacle, but unable to prevent consumers from developing different forms of business outside the established distribution paths (Eras, 2007, Renaud, 2007). At the same time industry’s love marks and customer relationships are decreasing and deteriorating due to corporate behaviour.

This paper, based on primary and secondary research, studies different approaches suggesting some explanations and reasons, why the Home Entertainment Industry is increasingly set apart of content consumption and may put its existence on stake, unless a change of strategies may help to regain some of its lost territory.

Key words:
Hyper-consumer, P2P, c2c, discontinuous change, disruptive technologies