From Stream to River?
Half of the companies in the FTSE 100 now employ webcasting - over 80% are streaming information to investor audiences, according to a recent survey from simplywebcast. During May to October ‘99, the quantity of streaming audio sent grew by 487%, while streaming video grew by 299%, compared with the previous six months, says the Gartner Group. This is unprecedented growth, and progress is not slowing. Streaming technology is being used for everything from dog racing broadcasts to pub jukeboxes, while the BBC claims figures of around 5m concurrent streams (simultaneous users) for its news service, with 100% audio growth every four months.
The corporate space, however, is providing a more stable revenue stream for streaming companies on all sides of the equation, from distribution to production. In the US, laws regarding fair disclosure boosted the real-time streaming of corporate events, and a comparable reaction is expected across Europe as a similar code of practice is released by the FSA in June. Debra Charnley, Analysys analyst, says: ‘In my experience, corporates are trialing streaming at the moment, looking to build their own applications on top in the future - nothing is holding back widespread adoption now.’ Dan Grapengiesser, CEO Streamway, concurs: ‘We saw 50% of corporates using streaming for relaying their financial information in Q3 last year - this is now up to 90% in Q1 alone!’
E-learning is another area spoken of fondly by corporates and service providers alike, bringing in the cost savings issue, while voice over internet protocol (VoIP) has been embraced as a cost-saving intranet communication method. Alfred Binford, Globix president, says: ‘Corporate communications have been a huge driver of this market to date - we are seeing the same in Europe right now. Internal training and learning, for example, is predicted to be a $20bn+ market by 2005 - even if this figure is halved, that’s a lot of potential revenue!’
What will drive further adoption, revenue and overall acceptance of streaming technologies and business models? All agree that much-hyped live and Video On Demand (VoD) mass-marketing manoevres such as Victoria Real, Big Brother and Madonna concerts will be popular, but are unlikely to generate real revenue until broadband reaches most European homes.
However, like the internet and wireless before it, streaming suffers from the classic overhype problems. Every broadsheet chatters about 3G ‘enabling streaming video to the handset’ and there are companies that claim this is possible now. While this kind of service will no doubt be a killer app of the future, it seems unlikely to happen in reality for a while yet. As a content distribution network (CDN) owner was overheard saying last week: ‘What we need are realistic expectations from this market – we simply can’t provide streaming video to all devices, all the time. What we can do, though, needs far more real world attention and publicity if this exciting market is to survive.’ Binford goes for a more upbeat tone: ‘The real point here is that companies need to not just apply streaming media technologies and principles to their business, they need to exploit them!’
Aside from corporate clients, how will this revenue be collected? Will more compelling advertising mean more ad revenue, and how will the metrics be standardised? When the mass market gets their VoD, and will it be charged by pay-per-view, broadcast or by byte models? These are all crystal ball-gazing questions for now, but the answers should become clear over the coming months.
This is what the team here at Europe Streaming Media will provide – blue sky proselytising is fine for a nascent market, but won’t provide hard investment in the current climate. What is needed in these times of a flatlining market is a prosaic measurement of what can be achieved, why and how companies have done so, and finally their prospects for the future. Europe has an incredible range of cultures, both business and social, and an innovative attitude towards change that has enabled streaming media to be adopted relatively widely and for a plethora of different applications. Let’s keep that stream flowing.