The annual deep dive of the global media and entertainment market shows that as distribution splinters, adaptation will win out requiring companies to be open to emerging business models that capture new growth streams.

The study also revealed that online video revenues will overtake physical home video for the first time in 2017. These revenues are projected to grow at a CAGR of 11.6% to reach US$36.7 billion in 2021, while the terminally declining market for DVDs and Blu-rays will have fallen to US$13.9 billion.

Looking at future entertainment formats, PwC believes that Americans will buy and use some 70 million virtual reality headsets by 2021 at what PwC calls an eye-popping 69% CAGR, indicating the boundless potential in multiple industries for this burgeoning technology. PwC believes that the consumer VR content market will see a large upswing to $5 billion at 88% CAGR by 2021, powered by spending on VR video (VR-specific entertainment, film and event or sports coverage). In fact, by 2021, PwC forecasts that VR video will represent 58% of overall content spending in this market.

The PwC Global entertainment and media outlook 2017-2021 also revealed that virtual reality video revenue will exceed interactive application/gaming revenue in 2019. Of the US$15.1 billion in total revenue projected for the consumer VR content market in 2021, US$8.0 billion will be spent on VR video (rising at a CAGR of 91.2%), surpassing interactive experiences and games in 2019.