1997 Survey of Toronto's Multimedia Industry
Preliminary Findings
Part 2
by Shauna Brail, May 1997
© Copyright 1997 Shauna Brail
Contents | Executive
Summary | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Characteristics of Toronto's Multimedia
Industry
Toronto's multimedia industry has emerged
relatively recently. Survey results indicate that the
average age of firms, including those that did not
begin initially as multimedia firms, is eight years.
On average, firms in the Toronto area began to work
in multimedia in 1994. To further emphasize the youth
of the industry, consider that nearly 53% of firms
were established between 1994 and 1997. Despite its
youth however, the multimedia industry in the Toronto
area displays a number of important characteristics
that reflect how the industry has emerged thus far
and helps to indicate the directions in which the
industry may change in the future.
The majority of firms (64%) reported that they
combine multimedia work with other types of work. The
most common types of work combined with multimedia
included related industries such as: software
development, graphic design, printing and publishing,
broadcasting and video, music, advertising and
marketing, and computer based training. Previous
studies of multimedia have also shown the
relationship between multimedia, computing and
cultural industries (Scott, 1995; IMAT, 1995) and
these results appear to support such claims.
Furthermore, they highlight the fact that multimedia
and related industries are not mutually exclusive and
that both types of activities can be successfully
carried out within the same firm.
FIGURE 2: Multimedia Focus
FIGURE 3: Client Focus
In terms of the types of clients that multimedia
products are being developed for in Toronto, Figure
3 clearly shows that the majority of multimedia
products are developed for individual clients.
Three-quarters of all firms indicate that half their
work or more is developed exclusively for custom
clients. Conversely, these figures show that most
firms produce little to no mass market products. In
other words, the bulk of multimedia work carried out
by Toronto area firms, involves the development of
custom products.
FIGURE 4: Activity Focus
Figure 4 shows that the activity focus of
multimedia products being developed by survey
respondents generally corresponds to the definition
of multimedia that includes 'interactivity'. Eighty
percent of firms report that more than half of their
products by sales are interactive, while 19% report
that more than half of their products by sales are
non-interactive. Furthermore, the highest proportion
of respondents overall (42%) report that 100% of
their products, by sales, are interactive.
FIGURE 5: Functional Focus
The functional focus of multimedia firms in the
Toronto area is clearly shown in Figure 5 to
be product development, followed by publishing and
then distribution. Fully 95% of firms are involved in
product development, with 63% involved in publishing
activities, and 41% in distribution. Developing and
publishing of multimedia products often go hand in
hand, but distribution of multimedia products appears
to be a separate activity. Furthermore, these results
are somewhat to be expected based on the custom
product emphasis of the multimedia industry in
Toronto, as custom products do not require
distribution networks. Second, the distribution of
mass market products tends to lie in the hands of a
select few multinational corporations. The functional
focus of multimedia firms is shown to be mixed, with
most firms involved in more than one aspect of the
process.
FIGURE 6: Media Focus
The above table shows that text and video/graphics
are used in multimedia products more frequently than
sound. Representing the visual nature of multimedia,
respondents indicated that video/graphics are used
slightly more regularly than text in the development
of multimedia products. However, the majority of
survey respondents (86%) indicated combining all
three media groups in their work. These figures also
portray the fact that very few firms do not combine
all of the media groups in at least a portion of
their work.
FIGURE 7: Platform Focus
There are very few firms that focus solely on one
platform type. Most respondents indicated that their
work is divided between two or more platforms. The
least common platform is game consoles. This is in
many ways an expected result as games development is
typically an expensive mass market undertaking
requiring access to finance, markets, distribution
channels, and increasingly, the support of large
corporations. With respect to the other five platform
foci, however, the most common appears to be
Internet/ Intranet, followed by CD-ROM, Hard Disk and
Floppy Disk and then Kiosks. It is interesting to
consider how these results would have differed if
collected one to two years ago, when the Internet was
not the driving multimedia force that it is today.
FIGURE 8: Product Focus
Similar to the platform results highlighted above,
Figure 8 indicates that the overwhelming
majority of firms do not gear all of their products
towards one market sector. The one sector which
commands the most attention is the corporate market,
with 60% of firms gearing more than half of their
work towards corporate products. This is
understandably the case as the Toronto area is the
Canadian centre for headquarters of both national and
international corporations, as well as the focal
point of the national financial services industry,
and many other producer and business services. The
majority of product sales geared towards
Entertainment, Edutainment and Education are by firms
whose work focuses on products geared towards various
types of markets/clients. The health sector is the
one sector in which most firms do not participate. It
is also however, one of the newest sectors among
those listed for which multimedia products are being
developed.
Table 4 provides a snapshot of the types of
markets and products that the local multimedia
industry serves and develops, and the proportion of
firms indicating work in each field. The information
below highlights the importance of the Internet to
multimedia development; the focus of the Toronto
industry on corporate work including advertising,
marketing, intranet site design and business and
management materials. Some features of multimedia
associated with the film industry (i.e.: clip media,
film editing, interactive TV, movies and TV, and
special effects) and with mass market products (i.e.
games) have lower than average numbers of firms
indicating low levels of participation in serving
these product markets.
TABLE 4: Products/Markets Served
| Products / Markets Served |
% of firms |
| Adult Education |
41% |
| Advertising |
63% |
| Animation |
35% |
| Business & Management
Materials |
47% |
| Children's Education |
27% |
| Clip Media |
7% |
| Film Editing |
16% |
| Financial Applications |
30% |
| Games |
15% |
| Graphics |
46% |
| Interactive TV |
16% |
| Internet Site Design |
72% |
| Intranet Site Design |
54% |
| Marketing |
59% |
| Movies & TV |
16% |
| Online Publishing |
44% |
| Reference Materials |
36% |
| Software |
33% |
| Special Effects |
14% |
| Virtual Reality |
22% |
| Vocational education |
17% |
| other |
10% |
In aggregate, what these results show most
powerfully is that the multimedia industry in the
Toronto area is comprised of individual firms
focusing mainly on the development of customized,
interactive multimedia products using a combination
of media and platforms, and catering to several
different markets. The depth and diversity of the
type of work being carried out by the local industry
may be a reflection of the industry's flexibility and
adaptability towards new product development based on
similar technology, and reflects the industry's
ability to gear products towards a multiplicity of
end users with different interests and needs.
Contents | Executive
Summary | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
