Scottish Group Offers Ambitious Plan to Grow Digital Sector

The Scottish Digital Media Advisory Group (SDIAG) has released a document which outlines suggested strategies that it thinks are needed to build the country’s digital media infrastructure.

SDIAG acknowledges that its Digital Inspiration document (PDF) is ambitious, but notes that “achievements of the past will not protect Scotland from change in the digital economy.” The overarching goal is to increase the number of digital companies in Scotland. For companies already in business, the goal is to have them become “more innovative, more international and more acquisitive,” eventually leading to their growth.

Among the key recommendations offered in the report:

• A more sophisticated understanding of the value to be derived from digital media as a growing and evolving business sector.
• A greater commitment to improving the performance of companies in the creative “value-chain”.
• Much more profitable leverage of intellectual property rights.
• Launch a pilot programme of tax and fiscal benefits to support the Dundee Games sector in 2010 to increase its global competitiveness.
• Generate greater investor awareness of digital media as a growth sector and greater investor readiness on the part of emergent companies.
• Cultivate a more ambitious national culture of acquisition, allowing Scottish companies to buy and not always be bought.

In the report’s foreword, SDIAG Chair Stuart Cosgrove added:

To react to the speed of change, the Scottish Government has encouraged the industry to propose achievable actions. This document does that. But it goes beyond its initial brief and advocates a step change in performance. It is longer in length than we originally anticipated because it has much to say, and it is not afraid to point to weaknesses where they exist.

SDIAG believes that if its suggestions are implemented, it can double current revenues achieved from the Scottish digital sector to £6.3 billion (approximately $10.2 billion U.S.) in 2012.