STREAMING MEDIA: the content provider perspective

Technology providers

• There are three key players in the streaming software market as it currently stands: RealNetworks (RealPlayer), Microsoft (WindowsMedia) and Apple (Quicktime).


• With no standard that ensures competing products work with one another, the battle for market leadership will be a difficult one and new players such as Yahoo!, which is reportedly testing software for playing and managing digital files, will have a tough ride ahead.


• Although RealNetworks appears to be in a dominant position, Microsoft has the somewhat controversial advantage of packaging its product with the ubiquitous Windows operating system.
  
• Increasingly, content providers are taking an agnostic approach to streaming media software as a way of maximising reach and choosing different players for different applications or different data rate speeds requirements.


• Many sites offer streaming media for a variety of players, with links to download sites if users do not have access to the relevant software.


• There are a growing number of internet start-ups who are creating the infrastructure and the services that are necessary to distribute video over the internet. At the head of the pack are Akamai and Digital Island. Other players of note here include iBeam Broadcasting, Microcast, STV, Clearband and Westminster Digital.

• In terms of the technology providers, the industry seems to be dividing into several business models. In terms of cost, the standard industry model is to charge for encoding, digitisation and software licensing fees. If network delivery services are included this is charged for on a sliding scale basis. Companies such as Clearband that also provide content will usually take a percentage of the advertising revenues.

• According to the industry analyst company Frost & Sullivan, the market for streaming media products was nearly $63 million in 1998, a 66% growth rate compared to 1997.


• Most streaming media content on the internet is offered free on web sites supported by banner advertising.


• Advertising-supported sites believe that this kind of content attracts an audience with a highly sought-after, high-value demographic, whilst simultaneously holding their attention for longer periods of time and building a returning audience.

• Web sites run by companies who already have a catalogue of video and audio content and attract the kind of advertisers who employ broadcast advertising in other media are the best placed to exploit streaming media online.


• Content such as news that is updated in close to real-time and cannot be constantly updated on television networks due to scheduling constraints is an obvious winner.


• Content that cannot be easily viewed through another medium will also find a natural home on the web.


• Professional and vocational training and development are held by many to be the killer corporate implementations of streaming media.

• The current streaming media experience is often ?underwhelming?, consisting of jerky postage stamp size pictures with poor quality sound.


• Internet start-ups are using fibre-optic networks as one solution to this. Alternative solutions that are being adopted by the technology companies include caching, where content hosting companies distribute content to a large number of servers at diverse geographic locations in place of offering one central server where everyone goes to download the same content.


• Broadband connection to the internet is seen by industry analysts to hold the key to the future of streaming media and this view is supported by our interviewees.


• There is scepticism in the industry that video content will be successful on handheld platforms (including mobiles and