Internet audio tuning hours also grew by 100% to 100 million hours per month and it was a strong growth year for broadband video streaming, with an average user accessing seven streams per month compared to slightly over one stream per narrowband counterpart. Combined, average narrowband and broadband streams accessed per average internet user was up to 1.45 per month.
Total broadband streaming media usage was driven up by the availability of more broadband content, greater broadband penetration and major news events. Total narrowband and broadband internet streams are now forecast to grow to almost 9 billion streams by the end of 2004, primarily to PC audiences.
Top streaming categories include news and information, music, sports, film-related content and internet television. International usage made up about 20% of all streams accessed.
“It’s been a year of market consolidation and audience expansion,” said Paul Palumbo, director of research at AccuStream iMedia. The major over-the-air and Internet brands now control the lion’s share of streaming media audiences. AOL’s broadband platform AOL+ and Real Networks’ various subscription and free sites are significant distribution points in streaming media.”
“As independent brands with significant streaming audiences have been absorbed by larger players, and the market consolidated 2001 there has been stream and audience growth around a far fewer number of sites.”
