2024: an esoterically interesting year so far for telemedia

2024: an esoterically interesting year so far for telemedia

2023 was an exciting year for telemedia: RCS adopted by Apple, carrier billing exploding across all sorts of service, content and AI joining forces to great some really interesting services. The market has become buoyant and, largely, quite compliant (see page 1). 2024 – thus far, and we are now half way through it believe it or not – has been much more sedate. However, there are some really strange and esoteric things happening that may yet reshape the industry in some quite profound ways. The concept of commerce media has been with us for a while – it is really just digital advertising reach out across more sites – but 2024 is seeing it start to become a real force to be reckoned with (see page 1). As cookies become effectively outlawed, brands needing to market to consumers have to turn to those with first party data and that suddenly puts any organisation, such as MNOs front and centre when it comes to being able to carry adverts. This is nothing new, but done right could be a massive new revenue stream for carriers. Commerce media is already becoming a multi-billion dollar industry in the US for retailers. MNOs – with their location data and device information – are well placed to really seize this opportunity.

It is also an excellent new performance marketing channel for VAS, offering them an excellent way to engage with consumers. It could also lead to a bonanza in carrier billing off the back of these services going live. The downside is that marketing and advertising are under attack. Invalid traffic created by AI and bots is really starting to hammer advertising (see page 18), while AI tools (see page 10) – useful as they are in content and service creation –are now being regulated (see pages 22 and 24). So, 2024 may look quiet, but actually there is a lot going down – and expect more in the second half.

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