Streaming Media 2004 - 2007: Market Development and User Data Analysis

US Research and Markets: Streaming Media (Internet Radio and video) exhibited strong growth in 2004, with both Internet-only and major offline brands capturing share in this growing on-demand broadcast segment. Video streams rose by 80.7% in 2004 to 14.2 billion served. The growth in video streams served was powered by: -- Increased broadband connection penetration at the residential level; -- The continued popularity of streaming media in office/work-related environments; -- More ad-supported broadband content, media players that queue up files for auto-play (Yahoo Launch, MSN Video, MSNBCNews, ESPN.com and others), and; -- Increasing video views per unique user per month associated with broadband users who consume more of the Internet, particularly multimedia Internet. Video streams are forecast to grow by 48% in 2005 to over 21 billion served. Broadband streams (100 Kbps and above) made up 79.3% of total streams served in 2004. Narrowband video streams made up 20.7% of total streams served, largely driven by AOL, which continues to make content libraries available at narrowband bit rates. Aggregate tuning hours (ATH) for the top ten Internet radio sites and networks rose by 75.9% in 2004 per month, to 178.9 million hours. ATH per month grew by 53.2% in 2003 compared to 2002, a year which saw significant contraction in the market due to the advertising slowdown and regulatory uncertainly with regard to copyright fees for re- broadcasting content. Streaming Media 2004 - 2007 Publ 20050531