- Telehealth to boom
- Australia leads the way in commercialising women’s sports
- 5G health risk perception to wane
The post-pandemic world has accelerated change in the technology, media and telcommunications landscape, with telehealth, women’s sport and immersive tech leading the charge in 2021, according to Deloitte forecasts.
Deloitte Australia’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions report highlights how worldwide trends may affect businesses and consumers worldwide.
The report also looks at how many of these trends are being driven by the global pandemic’s economic and societal impacts, resulting in intensifying growth in video, virtual, and cloud technologies.
Will Castles, Deloitte Australia Telco, Media & Entertainment leader, says the global pandemic has resulted in unprecedented technology acceleration that has fundamentally changed how we live and work.
“A range of enterprise and consumer technologies—from 5G to the cloud to virtual reality—will continue to offer opportunities to the worldwide business ecosystem,” says Castles.
“All of the trends this year were shaped to some extent by the global pandemic, accelerating change by years in some areas and throwing up some interesting curveballs in others, and creating significant new challenges and opportunities in 2021 and beyond.”
COVID-19 has jumpstarted a worldwide trend of telemedicine, including video-based doctor visits.
The pandemic not only necessitated the elimination of regulatory barriers to such visits but also helped consumers better understand and leverage video calling apps, especially consumers over the age of 65.
Many observers and service providers believed telehealth would take years to achieve widespread adoption across Australia but COVID-19 rocked the telehealth landscape and was the catalyst for change.
Globally, Deloitte predicts the percentage of virtual video visits to doctors will rise to 5% globally in 2021, up from an estimated 1% in 2019. Even single-digit growth is significant; 8.5 billion doctor’s visits, worth a total of approximately US$500 billion, took place in the 36 OECD countries in 2019 alone.
Deloitte predicts Australia will exceed the global average for telehealth adoption with more than 10% of Australians regularly using telehealth services in 2021.
The next five years will see a shift to virtual health as a consumer norm, as use of digitally enabled health services - such as apps for preventative health, care and recovery - grow exponentially.
Virtual health will enable consumers to move up the health continuum, changing not just the way healthcare is provided and accessed but also supporting the strong demand for wellbeing enabled by wearables and connected homes.
“For this shift to happen, business, government and other stakeholders will need to be proactive and creative in building the right policy settings, delivery models and ecosystems to deliver quality healthcare in a virtual context,” says Castles.
“To maintain the momentum created by COVID-19 they will need to capitalise on this now. We see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dramatically improve equality of access to both basic and more advanced healthcare solutions – particularly in an Australian context – so let’s not waste it.”
The popularity of women’s sport has grown in recent years as both governments and private organisations have invested heavily in increasing the participation rates and the profile of women’s sporting content to a mass audience.
These foundations are beginning to pay dividends and women’s sporting teams, leagues and events are becoming attractive commercial properties as they professionalise further and generate substantial revenue through media rights, sponsorship and gameday ticketing.
Australia is leading the way in this transition, outperforming global markets in its share of broadcast hours and sponsorship spend, alongside a number of successful professional league developments including the AFL Women’s (AFLW), Women’s Big Bash League and Netball’s Super
As broadcast deals commit to greater coverage of women’s games Deloitte predicts a rebalancing of broadcast hours with women’s sport to account for up to 25% of total broadcast sporting hours by 2025, accounting for the vast majority of growth in total sports consumption and in new consumers of sport.
Women’s sport is estimated to currently generate 8% of the total sponsorship value in Australia, broadly in line with its share of broadcasting hours.
Compared to the UK, where it is estimated that only 1% of corporate investment in sport through sponsorship is directed towards women’s sport, highlighting the progress Australia has made in developing attractive commercial offerings to brands.
Peter Corbett Deloitte TMT Industry Leader for Consulting, says the increase in audiences and broadcast reach coupled with the unique brand proposition, improved packaging and negotiation of sponsorship agreements will likely attract new and larger sponsors to women’s sport, and it is expected it will account for up to 20% of total sponsorship value by 2025.
“The rapid increase in accessibility, broadcast hours and audience reach for women’s sport has not only grown the total sports content landscape but is bringing new consumers into the sporting fold – particularly women,” says Corbett.
“This provides a valuable opportunity for brands to use sport as a meaningful way to engage with these segments through sport, particularly through the growing profile of female athletes as they increasingly become instantly recognisable, inspirational idols to Australians.”
In 2021, the proportion of Australians who believe there are health risks associated with 5G, or admit they don’t know about its effects will fall below 20% (down from 34% in 2020).
This coincides with the rapid rollout of 5G in Australia, with Telstra expecting coverage for 75% of the Australian population by the end of FY21 and other telcos following suit.
“While false health concerns remain a worry for many Australians we predict the level of concernwill drop significantly, prompted primarily by a boost to public education campaigns from network operators and the Australian government,” says Corbett.
“Conspiracy theories still abound linking 5G to the spread of COVID-19.
“To combat this misinformation we expect to see a further boost in public information campaigns by the major telcos throughout the year.
“We expect 5G adoption rates to be driven by consumer device upgrade timeframes, 5G plan pricing by telcos and broader enterprise adoption of 5G.”
The millimetre wave spectrum auctions are also scheduled for April.
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