"The impact of 5G will extend to virtually every industry, and entertainment and media companies will be among the earliest to incorporate 5G into their offerings and business models," the report said.

China's entertainment and media industry revenue will grow at a compound annual rate of 5.6 percent and reach $434.7 billion by 2023, remaining the world's second-largest market. Digital revenue accounted for more than 70 percent of the industry's revenue in 2018, and the rate could reach 75.4 percent by 2023, the report estimated.

Over the next five years, China's absolute growth in entertainment and media will exceed that of the US for the first time. In that period, the US will add $71 billion, while China will add $84 billion, said the report.

Virtual reality is the fastest-growing sector in China's media and entertainment industries, said the report. In 2018, China's VR market became the second largest in the world with revenue of $364 million. It is expected that in the next five years, China's VR industry will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 35.9 percent, the fastest in the world, with annual revenue reaching $1.14 billion in 2023.

China also owns the world's largest number of VR devices, with 21.1 million in 2018, and is expected to grow to 39.7 million in 2023.

With the large-scale deployment of 5G networks in China, the threshold of mobile VR devices will be further lowered and attract more users.

In the era of 5G, applications are increasingly competing for users' time. Network broadcast and audio programs would prevail in this battle with their unique advantages in accompanying people.

China became the world's largest podcast market in 2018, with 152.1 million monthly listeners and $128 million in podcast advertising revenue. The podcast industry is expected to grow strongly over the next five years at a compound annual rate of 34.6 percent, with revenues reaching $565 million by 2023.

A study by Nielsen and online radio platform Qingting FM (Dragonfly FM) found 661 million people in China listened to digital audio in 2018, some 82 percent of the country's online population, the report added.

The fast growth of over-the-top (OTT) video consumption is driven by the increasing broadband speed and penetration rate. OTT video became the newest and fastest-growing platform for major advertisers in 2018 with market revenue of $5.8 billion. The PwC report expects OTT video revenues to double in 2021 and reach $14.7 billion by 2023.

iQiyi, Youku Tudou and Tencent video have taken a more than 70 percent share of the OTT video industry in China. The 5G technology will enable OTT video users to consume more and higher-quality videos on mobile devices, and accelerate the personalized trend of users.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201906/06/WS5cf8b80ea31017657722fe3a.html