Research and Markets: Video Streams Rose by 80.7% in 2004 to 14.2 billion Served.

M2 PRESSWIRE-31 May 2005-Research and Markets: Research and Markets: Video Streams Rose by 80.7% in 2004 to 14.2 billion Served(C)1994-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

RDATE:31052005

Dublin - Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c18419) has announced the addition of Streaming Media 2004 - 2007: Market Development and User Data Analysis to their offering

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. This report looks at usage data by site, network, channel, aggregator and combines that with in-depth historical usage data to provide accurate forecast and trend analysis across multiple content categories, including film, music, TV, general entertainment, sports and news.

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.

This report covers the following topics:

- Total Video Streams Served Annually

- Broadband and Narrowband Video Stream Growth Rate Comparison

- Content Category Comparison: Full Year 2004

- Total Streaming Video Accesses: The Top Ten Sites and Networks: Full Year 2003 and 2004

- Internet Radio Average Aggregate Tuning Hours per Month: The Top Ten Sites and Networks - 2001 - 2004n

- Content Category Comparison: Full Year 2004

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c18419.

CONTACT: Laura Wood, Senior Manager, Research and MarketsFax: +353 1 4100 980 e-mail: press@researchandmarkets.com

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