BROADBAND STREAMS GREW BY 83% IN ’02, MADE UP 62.5% OF TOTAL VIDEO FILES ACCESSED

            Broadband streams (100 Kbps encoded files and above) grew by 84% in 2002, making up a total of 62.5% of the total 4 billion streams served through the year, based on the latest market study released by AccuStream iMedia Research (Streaming Media History and Forecasts: 1998 – 2005).

            The report, available through the AccuStream website (http://www.accustreamresearch.com) also revealed that while broadband is driving the adoption of streaming media (particularly video), narrowband video streams managed to grow by 18% during the year.

            Moreover, users of music services and subscribers to audio services through the major sports leagues are, by a slight majority, narrowband users.

            We continue to predict modest growth for narrowband streaming (on the video side) and stronger growth on the audio side, but broadband media consumption patterns and the availability for high-speed files is really the programming sweet spot now for the major television broadcast and cable TV brands and their distribution/platform partners.

            Narrowband stream growth is forecast to begin to decline in 2005, based on current estimates, but there are variables that could alter the current trend line.

With the proliferation of wireless devices capable of downloading short stream segments, or even longer form programming (particularly audio), the growth dynamic could be substantially altered.

Under that scenario, the PC Internet would perform more of a longer form repository of extensive live and on-demand streaming video content from content brands, and mobile devices used as more personal, user-programmed communication and entertainment terminals, with everything from video voice mails to sports highlights/replays at event venues part of the usage profile mix.