Digital Content Creation Market to Grow to Nearly $5 Billion in 2012

Source RedOrbit
Jon Peddie Research announces the release of the 2007 Digital Content Creation Report. This year's report includes sections on 3D modeling and Animation, 2D Animation, Digital Video, Graphics and Imaging, and Audio.
The digital content creation market has seen a healthy period of growth.
The total DCC market grew 16% from $2.6 billion to reach more than $3 billion in 2006. The fastest growing segments in the future will be interactive development and video as the web offers new distribution networks and new programming approaches such as AJAX to enable small compelling applications to be developed that extend the power of individual web sites.

Jon Peddie Research predicts the market will reach $4.9 billion by 2012 reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 10%.

"We are seeing big shifts in the digital content creation market. For example there have been game changing moves by Adobe with the acquisition of Macromedia and Serious Magic, Autodesk's acquisition of Alias and Colorfront and Google's acquisition of Sketchup and YouTube. The landscape is changing right in front of us all. It's all good, but companies are going to have to be nimble to adapt," says Kathleen Maher, Senior Analyst at Jon Peddie Research and author of the DCC Report.

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Financial Incentive Bill Passes Third House Committee Unanimously

FINANCIAL INCENTIVE BILL PASSES THIRD HOUSE COMMITTEE UNANIMOUSLY. 

HB1325 passed unanimously through the House Policy & Budget Council Thursday afternoon, April 5.   The bill is now ready for consideration to be voted on by the entire House chamber.  The amended version of the bill will be posted soon to the following website http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=36416& .  More information about Senate version of bill coming soon.

House Incentive Bill Update…

[from FilminFlorida] --
HB 1325 will indeed be heard tomorrow (Thursday, April 5) in the Policy and Budget Council of the House of Representatives, its final stop before going to the floor of the House for a final vote.  Meeting is scheduled from 9:00AM to 4:00PM in room 212 of the Knott Building, a wing off of the Capitol buildingin Tallahassee.
 
The bill will feature a few technical amendments and keep the $75 million total tax credit funding over three years, allocating $25 million per year.  If the total allocated credits exceed the aggregate amount in a year, the excess will be considered as having been applied for in the next fiscal year.  The bill also retains the ability to roll forward any unused tax credits from one year into the next year.
 
Chairman Dean Cannon will present the bill on behalf of Rep. Don Davis.  The Policy and Budget Council is chaired by Chairman Ray Sansom of Ft. Walton Beach.
 
The Council will be hearing quite a number of bills in addition to ours.  Here is the agenda:

HB 129 -- Community Contribution Tax Credits 
HB 135 -- Local Business Taxes 
CS/HB 229 -- Guardian Ad Litem Program 
CS/HB 251 -- Regional Transportation Facilities 
CS/HB 271 -- Contracting for Efficiency or Conservation Measures by State Agencies 
CS/HB 289 -- Textbook Affordability 
CS/HB 395 -- Surplus State Lands 
CS/HB 455 -- Organ and Tissue Donation 
CS/HB 461 -- High School Athletics 
CS/HB 463 -- Pub. Rec. & Meetings/Drug Tests 
CS/HB 475 -- Local Business Taxes 
CS/HB 507 -- Dependent Children and Youth 
HB 531 -- Online Dating Services 
CS/HB 575 -- School Safety 
CS/HB 651 -- Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services 
CS/HB 807 -- Domestic Violence 
CS/HB 967 -- Physical Education 
CS/HB 1041 -- Children's Zones 
CS/HB 1083 -- Homelessness 
CS/HB 1117 -- Personal Identification Information 
CS/HB 1121 -- Florida Health Information Network Corporation 
HB 1123 -- Pub. Rec./Florida Health Information Network Corporation 
CS/HB 1181 -- Foster Care and Related Services 
CS/HB 1231 -- Prostitution 
CS/HB 1325 -- Entertainment Industry Economic Development 
CS/HB 1363 -- Organized Criminal Activity 
CS/HB 1401 -- Access to Health Care 
CS/HB 1451 -- Procurement of Personal Property and Services 
CS/HB 1457 -- Recreational Vehicle Manufacturers, Distributors, and Dealers 
HB 1483 -- Local Government Revenue Sources 
CS/HB 1579 -- North Okaloosa Fire District, Okaloosa County
 
Still waiting to hear about the Senate’s next step for SB 96.  We will let you know when we learn more!

Apple Unveils Higher Quality DRM-Free Music on the iTunes Store

DRM-Free Songs from EMI Available on iTunes for $1.29 in May
CUPERTINO, California—April 2, 2007—Apple® today announced that EMI Music's entire digital catalog of music will be available for purchase DRM-free (without digital rights management) from the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com) worldwide in May. DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just $1.29 per song. In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 30 cents a song. iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today—128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM—at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside DRM-free higher quality versions when available.
"We are going to give iTunes customers a choice—the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year."
"EMI and iTunes are once again teaming up to move the digital music industry forward by giving music fans higher quality audio that is virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings, with no usage restrictions on the music they love from their favorite artists," said Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group.
With DRM-free music from the EMI catalog, iTunes customers will have the ability to download tracks from their favorite EMI artists without any usage restrictions that limit the types of devices or number of computers that purchased songs can be played on. DRM-free songs purchased from the iTunes Store will be encoded in AAC at 256 kbps, twice the current bit rate of 128 kbps, and will play on all iPods, Mac® or Windows computers, Apple TVs and soon iPhones, as well as many other digital music players.
iTunes will also offer customers a simple, one-click option to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free format for 30 cents a song. All EMI music videos will also be available in DRM-free format with no change in price.
The iTunes Store features the world's largest catalog with over five million songs, 350 television shows and over 400 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over two billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies, making it the world's most popular online music, TV and movie store.