1894 was an auspicious year in humankind’s quest to develop useful technologies. It was the year that a 20-year-old Italian, Guglielmo Marconi, demonstrated to his mom in their home in Bologna, Italy, how he could make a bell system ring across the room with the first working radio transmitter and receiver. In 1909, Marconi would share the Nobel Prize in physics for his invention and the study of the physics of radio waves. Fast forward 126 years, and we live in a world completely and utterly transformed by Marconi’s invention. He would be shocked by what he would see today. Some of the most transformative technologies humankind has ever invented, including GPS systems, smartphones, WiFi, air traffic control, and so many other life-altering technologies would simply not be possible without a modern version of Marconi’s “wireless” technology.

Today, these evolved “wireless” technologies, help the media and entertainment industry move content around the globe and get that content to consumers in their homes and on all their mobile devices. But things are just starting to get going.

Recent changes in wireless technology have been profound. It took over a century, but until only the last handful of years, have the silicon and software technologies existed to make the distribution of multi-media content via wireless signals to a mobile personal computing device like the smartphone a successful reality. Today, with more than 70 percent of mobile users watching video on their 3G and 4G Internet-connected phones, 5G technology is about to change the media & entertainment landscape as much in the next ten years as radio-based distribution technologies like broadcast, satellite, and microwave did in the past 50 years.*

Media and entertainment ‘experiences’ enabled by 5G will generate up to $1.3 trillion (£0.9 trillion) in revenue by 2028, according to a new report commissioned by Intel and carried out by Ovum. This is almost half of the projected $3 trillion (£2.3 trillion) in wireless revenues overall. The report suggests that 2025 will represent a ‘tipping point’ for 5G in entertainment and media. By that time, the report forecasts that around 57 percent of wireless revenue globally will be driven by the capabilities of 5G networks and devices. By 2028, Intel and Ovum expect that number to rise to 80 percent.**