The country, which co-hosted the football tournament with Korea in 2002, hopes to convince Fifa to award it the tournament for a second time with an elaborate high-tech bid. Japan plans to make use of 200 high definition cameras to film the matches and then transmit them across the world to be shown on giant 3D screens. The Japanese are even considering ways to project 3D representations of the players onto empty pitches in other countries so that fans can enjoy a virtual football match. To make the experience even more immersive for viewers at the virtual match, microphones will be installed under the pitch at the World Cup to ensure that all the atmosphere is captured. Football fans will use digital tickets to get into matches and use GPS to find their way around stadiums.

Another key finding: 40 percent of respondents say that "immediate access" to chosen content is very important to them, suggesting a shift from owning videos to accessing programming on demand. Most importantly, Ericsson says that service providers must devise ways to align consumer spending and usage. Thanks to the "everything should be free" Internet mindset and a growing shift to TV consumption on PCs, traditional service providers risk seeing the value of their offerings diminished. Yet, "if done right," Ericsson argues, "consumers will reallocate their TV spending to new alternatives."