Telemedia Barcelona is always a great way to kick off the year: it crystalises just what is happening in the market and very much sets the agenda for the months ahead. This year was no exception, although world events also had a somewhat last-minute hand in setting the agenda too. So, what are the trends and themes that we are seeing in the sector?
The mood music overall is extremely positive. Growth is happening across the sector in all regions, thanks largely to better, smoother regulation in both developed and emerging markets alongside improving connectivity everywhere.
Moves such as that by Pakistan’s telecoms regulator, the PTA, to make all SPs and MNOs get explicit consent before billing people for telemedia services only reinforce how, (a) consumers clearly really want these services, (b) how state bodies recognise that hunger and (c) how, to be successful, the services have to be squeaky clean.
This pretty much exemplifies where Telemedia Barcelona found the industry; consumers want it and regulators, MNOs, central banks and governments want to it work. It is now completely mainstream.
Content evolution
As a result, content is evolving with many new types – such as micro-dramas and edutainment – expanding across all regions. Established favourites such as sports and esports continue to thrive and, as with new short-form and IRL (in real life) content also experiencing insatiable demand from consumers, the volume of all content types is expanding virtually exponentially.
The pace of change with content services is clearly demonstrated by the wide range of services on offer from telemedia players, while the vast rate of change in consumer content habits is clearly shown by research from Bango out this week that suggests that UK consumers want to be rewarded for watching whole series or boxsets of completing ‘streaks’ of viewing. If this is something that catches on, a whole new rewards-based paradigm for content consumption opens up. Definitely a new business model to watch.
Paying the bill
How consumers pay for their content is also changing. While DCB still underpins telemedia as we know it, it is slowly becoming just one of a range of convenient, low-friction payment tools that consumers use somewhat interchangeably as they munch their way through this array of content. With many mobile phone contracts and pre-pay deals now dependent on data rather than minutes, the role of DCB has shifted to accommodate other payment rails.
This has clearly been seen across recent Telemedia shows and is also borne out by the rising number of payment orchestration companies at the show. Allowing aggregators, SPs and CPs to be able to plug into the vast array of payment mechanism brands that have appeared across all markets is now a key element of the telemedia value chain. To operate internationally is increasingly essentially, but to achieve that requires offering a range of payment options, a range that differs from country to country.
LatAm: the next big thing?
The explosion in content types and the broadening of payment rails isn’t confined to one region. Telemedia Barcelona was awash with good news about regional growth in services, traffic and billing.
Despite what was unfolding on the geopolitical stage as the show took place, MENA remains a strong growth market, with high levels of traffic, improving 4G and 5G networks and much tighter regulation. Africa too continues to be a highly attractive region, with content and service uptake continuing to grow at pace, driven by an rapidly expanding mobile user base and the continent’s leadership in alternative payment methods (APMs).
However, it is LatAm that is on everyones’ minds at the show. Most of the delegates and exhibitors at Telemedia Barcelona that I talked to across the event cited the region as an increasingly attractive market – if not the market to open up.
With a clean-up of affiliate traffic and a clamp down on scams and fraud, this enormous market has some 500 million mobile users – the GSMA had it pegged at 418 million in 2023, it is bound to have grown – and a 70% mobile penetration rate. It also has a tech savvy urban population and growing rural connectivity. It is easy to see why it has next big thing energy.
There are challenges however. A reliance on Google for traffic– although some adtech platforms such as Astrad and Smadex are also making significant inroads – can impact costs. MNOs in the region have become extremely sensitive about where traffic comes from, so there are limits to how to drive eyeballs. There are also a plethora of bespoke, central bank-backed alternative APMs – such as Pix in Brazil, Argentina’s Transferencias 3.0 and Colombia’s Bre-B to name just three – which mean payment orchestration is essential.
Together, this thirst for content, a hunger for orchestrated billing and the fact that innovation and expansion across MENA, Africa and LatAm are all very much front and centre to the industry makes 2026 look like being an exciting and interesting year. What I personally love is the innovation. Every event sees something new and interesting spun out of the telemedia value chains. In a rapidly changing world, the fact that there is always forward movement is heartening. Long may it continue and flourish.
