Streaming Media: Opportunities and Challenges
Abstract On April 1, 1999, Yahoo announced to acquire Internet audio and video
broadcasting upstart Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion. News of the
acquisition created big bang in the Wall Street, sending Broadcast.com
shares soaring. This event also caused investors to quickly push upwards
the valuations of related companies, from the branded, leading software
solution and service provider RealNetworks, Inc., to small-cap, niche
players such as Audiohighway.com and TCI Music, Inc. By delivering live or
on-demand audio and video content over the Internet, streaming media
technology has received strong acceptance from both Internet users and
industry players ranging from ISPs to software vendors to content
aggregators to network infrastructure providers. Traditional broadcasters
are also monitoring its development since such technology may threaten
traditional means of video distribution, especially given that broadband
access is growing more ubiquitous and more affordable to both business and
consumer users. After the aggressive buying of Net stocks in late March and early April, shares of broadcast.com, RealNetworks, and other streaming media players, together with the whole Internet sector, had provided investors with a reality check by the time this paper was written (up again since October 1999!). However, the wealth creation opportunities of the dot-com gold rush and the potential of streaming media to the World Wide Web still remain very attractive, if not more so. Streaming media will not be a novelty but rather, an integral part of Internet services. It is the technological pathway to true media convergence. This paper reviews the history of streaming media, examines its market segmentation and value proposition, and analyzes streaming media's roles and opportunities in the Internet, its promises for new media, and the challenges facing it going forward.
Introduction The last year of 20th century
marked the beginning of broadband and streaming media frenzy. Splashes
were made as Yahoo acquired streaming media content aggregator
Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion in April, followed by a series of exciting
events in the arena of audio/video distribution over the Internet. Streaming media allows multimedia content to be played on computers as
it is being received, rather waiting until the entire file is downloaded.
Media that can be streamed include synchronized graphics, text, sound,
video, 3D images, music and virtual reality environment. Although
streaming media is still in its infancy and generated only about $100
million in revenue in 1998 (excluding adult content), it is a popular
element found on many leading consumer-oriented web sites. Streaming media
as a cost-effective way to distribute media-rich contents or broadcast
live events is also gaining awareness among corporations, government
agencies, and educational institutions. Media companies, old and new
alike, are searching strategic alliances and creating game plans to rush
into this fresh field of Internet and new media. History of Streaming Media Following the development of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and the invention of
multicasting by Steve Deering in early 90s, streaming media entered the
Internet in 1995 with its first delivery system by Xing Technology. Major
historical events that highlight RealNetworks are outlined as follows:
- RealProducer 7.0 delivers the quality of MPEG-1 video at half the data rate and delivers true VHS video experience at 800 Kbps Applications and Market Segmentation
Value Propositions and Roles in Internet
Choice, effectiveness, cost savings, speed, flexibility, and reach represent the major advantages of streaming media. Streaming media over the Internet condenses geography, solves time zone conflicts, and provides an affordable supplement to videoconferences. It provides easy collection of viewing behavior statistics, allowing broadcasters and content providers to easily asses and maximize the attractiveness of broadcasts and content. Internet broadcasting is about 60% of the cost of traditional broadcasting. Prices drop even further when ISPs deploy multicasting. Traditional broadcasting cost for a corporate CEO speech to 28 offices is $92,000, compared to $15,000 via Internet broadcast. A scalable technology, streaming media can be scaled to run on a range of implementations: single user, department-sized multiple-server environment, or large system designed to serve many thousands of users. Content and applications requiring security or privacy are not stored on users' computers. It eliminates the requirement for large storage devices to view media content and minimizes the wait for playback. The next major improvement of the Web experience will be audio and video experiences. Streaming media promotes Web site usage. Research shows that users stay longer at sites that have streaming media, revisit these sites more often than the sites without streaming media. Streaming media enhances web-based advertising and "push content". The commercial value of advertising is expected to increase for broadcast applications in conjunction with streaming media. Jae Kim, an associate analyst at Paul Kagan Associates Inc., says the expanded multimedia market represented by streaming media will total more than $10 billion in the next few years. Kim says streaming media's economic impact goes beyond the traditional "units-times-price equals market revenue" calculation. "The real value of this lies in the realization of cost savings and the leveraging of a company's or individual's knowledge base across a multitude of new users. The impact of streaming media on Internet will be huge. Currently Microsoft Audio and video sites on the Internet are already growing faster than traditional Web sites. Internet radio and television sites are proliferating faster than the Internet itself. A potentially big breakthrough in streaming media application is game business, which will be fueled by the streaming technology. Below are examples that show the roles and opportunities of streaming media in the Internet: Internet Radio
The Internet has created a long list of new-generation online music
companies, and the digital distribution of music is just beginning to
take off. Forrester Research estimates that the digital music download
business will exceed $1 billion by 2003, while London-based Market
Tracking International (MTI) projects that the Internet music market
will reach $4 billion by 2004. According to Media Metrix, the number of
people who listened to digital music on the Internet in August 1999
jumped to over 4 million, up from a few hundred thousand a year ago.
There are over twenty Web sites that offer movie previews or
full-length videos using streaming media. To name a few, Broadcast.com,
MovieFlow.com, Sputnik7.com, Video Pipeline, WireBreak Entertainment,
are companies offering or plan to offer streaming movies. Field in race
to build cinemas in cyberspace has grown more crowded as additional
companies announced plans to stream movies and other video on Internet.
Santa Monica-based Trimark, independent studio with large movie library,
signed a deal with Broadcast.com early 1999 for screening films on
Internet. In August, Trimark announced CinemaNow, new subsidiary to form
its own streaming video Web site. Trimark envisions CinemaNow to be
"premiere online destination" for "independent, art house
and niche-oriented feature-length motion pictures." Site also will
sell DVD and VHS versions of films. CinemaNow will use Microsoft and
RealNetworks technology to stream films. To bring the real intensity of sports experiences to worldwide
audiences, digital sports companies are creating comprehensive networks
of sports programming available at a Mouse' click. Quokka Sports, a
digital sports entertainment company and developer of Quokka Sports
Immersionª, is poised to bring Web surfers a high-intensity digital
experience that takes sports entertainment to a new level. After
establishing a reputation with breakthrough coverage of the Whitbread
Race, the company is now creating a comprehensive network of sports
programming. Quokka has secured digital broadcasting rights for a wide
variety of global sporting events -- events characterized by excitement,
adventure and wide appeal to sports fans, with exceptionally attractive
demographics for advertisers and sponsors. Email is the first communications tool offered by the Internet,
followed by IP voice and instant messaging. The Internet is becoming
even a more powerful communications platform with the capability of
audio and video streaming. Event411.com creates comprehensive,
easy-to-use event- planning Web sites that provide indispensable,
interactive tools for hosts and guests involved in any important
individual or organizational event. Event411.com provides access to
listings of almost 1 million local businesses, and an online store
offering thousands of gift items and event-related merchandise. Streaming media brings virtual reality of travel attractions to cyber
visitors. One company entering this field is PSAZZ.com. With "CyberTravel
For The 21st Century", PSAZZ.com will be the first completely
integrated web site for buyers and sellers of travel products. Cyber
visitors will be hosted by the concierge of the company's virtual
"Internet Travel Club," a unique service, where they will be
able to access electronic magazines with on-demand videos, guided by
travel experts, of virtually any destination. Content will also feature
interviews with celebrities. Viewers will be alerted to and be able to
purchase travel packages to unique, upcoming world events. With a 50% annual increase in demand for learning programs delivered
online, streaming media is an ideal tool to implement distance learning.
. Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) have used streaming
media to deliver disaster training over the Internet at a significantly
lower cost than sending experts to the field. GirlGeeks?, a career,
training and empowerment community on Web, provides unique blend of
interactive multi-media content with female IT leaders, on-line affinity
groups, personalized training, and career-building resources to aspire
and train young women in computing, the Internet and Information
Technology. VideoHomeTours.com introduced its signature product VideoHomeTours
which films and produces full motion walk-through tours of properties
and places them on the Internet. VideoHomeTours.com offers customers a
variety of tour packages - starting at less than $100 - that help
minimize the time and effort it takes to buy and sell property and
maximize return. Owners can choose to customize their home tours with
voice-over narration from a professional tour guide, background music
and digital editing. Packages include a listing on the Figure 1. Value Chain of Streaming Media
Business Models
Strategic alliances are being formed to combine leadership positions in
technology, portals, and contents. Leading Internet brands such as AOL
have signed marketing agreements with music or other streaming media
portals such as Musicmaker.com to cross-promote music sales through
reciprocal links, advertising and other marketing initiatives. Co-branded
sites are being developed. The following profiles of several major players
in different categories give a glimpse of what streaming media companies
are doing. Due to the pressure streaming media puts on the network, many ISPs
impose a fifteen-minute time limit on streaming media. This greatly slows
down the penetration of streaming media and the pace of media convergence. Divergence in the types of formats used and lack of industry standards
creates market confusion. Although many portals have started to include
encoded contents that match different formats, that requires viewers to
either install all the media players or have the platform that covers all
the standards. It is also yet to see whether and how long before video over the
Internet will eventually catch up with the quality and popularity of TV
viewing. Streaming video technology views motion at 15-22 frames per
second while in broadcast television the standard is 30 frames per second.
Although technological improvement may not be difficult, there are issues
related with consumer habits, interface problems, and ease of use. Last but not the least challenge for streaming media going forward is
the lack of content availability and the differences between contents for
traditional media vs. new media contents. Currently streaming media
production costs are quite high, and top-notch production caliber of
webcasts is rare to find. Most streaming video content is produced in
QuickTime and then converted to other formats. As bandwidth becomes more
ubiquitous and bit becomes cheaper, content will remain the king. Content availability is one of the streaming media industry's major
keys to success. Control of content and distribution gives enormous value
to vertically integrated companies. To be competitive, Web companies will
have to generate more original content by evolving into media/web
companies, or market share will be invaded by media companies with strong
web distribution channels. A natural move will be merger of media
companies and companies with VOD technologies and capacities. Streaming media is revolutionizing the way
organizations create, archive, deliver and display information. It is
changing how media is distributed and the way people do entertainment.
Demand for streaming media will grow as broadband access gains momentum.
As broadband penetration increases and more and more Web-specific contents
become available, interactive media and video-on-demand will become major
streaming media enablers. Full user interactivity will create large market
opportunities in distant learning, gaming, and video conference. With
streaming media, TV, radio, and the Internet are on the way to converge
into a single broadcast medium. Internet will deliver TV-like scheduled
programming as well as video on demand. Streaming media will also increase
Web advertising and e-Commerce revenues. As traditional media and
entertainment companies look into ways to incorporate streaming media into
their strategies, a new media is starting to take shape, with the Internet
as a powerful delivery platform.
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RealVideoFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaRealVideo is a proprietary video format developed by RealNetworks. It was first released in 1997 and as of 2006 is at version 10. RealVideo is supported on many platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, and several mobile phones. RealVideo is usually paired with RealAudio and packaged in a RealMedia (.rm) container. RealMedia is suitable for use as a streaming media format, that is one which is viewed while it is being sent over the network. Streaming video can be used to watch live television, since it does not require downloading the video in advance.
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TechnologyThe first version of RealVideo was announced in 1997 and was based on the H.263 codec. At the time, RealNetworks put out a press release saying they had licensed Iterated Systems' ClearVideo technology and were including it in RealVideo. However, support for ClearVideo quietly disappeared in the next version of RealVideo. RealVideo continued to use H.263 until RealVideo 8, when the company switched to a proprietary video codec. RealVideo codecs are identified by four character codes. RV10 and RV20 are the H.263-based codecs. RV30 and RV40 are RealNetworks' proprietary formats. These identifiers have been the source of some confusion, as people may assume that RV10 is RealVideo version 10, when it is actually the first version of RealVideo. RealVideo 10 uses RV40. RealVideo can be played from a RealMedia file or streamed over the network using the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), a standard protocol for streaming media developed by the IETF. However, RealNetworks uses RTSP only to set up and manage the connection. The actual video data is sent with their own proprietary RDT protocol. This tactic has drawn criticism because it made it difficult to use RealVideo with other player and server software. However, the open source MPlayer project has now developed software capable of playing the RDT streams. To facilitate real-time streaming, RealVideo (and RealAudio) normally uses constant bit rate encoding, so that the same amount of data is sent over the network each second. Recently, RealNetworks has introduced a variable bit rate form called RealMedia Variable Bitrate (rmvb). This allows for better video quality, however this format is less suited for streaming because it is difficult to predict how much network capacity a certain video stream will need. Video with fast motion or rapidly changing scenes will require a higher bit rate. If the bit rate of a video stream increases significantly, it may exceed the speed at which data can be transmitted over the network, leading to an interruption in the video.
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RealVideo PlayersThe official player for RealVideo is RealNetworks RealPlayer, currently at version 10, and is available for various platforms including Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. RealPlayer has been quite controversial due to RealNetworks' reputation for invasive advertising and hard-sell tactics.[1] Some people refuse to use RealPlayer and have sought alternative means of playing RealVideo content. Several other players exist, including MPlayer and Real Alternative. Many of these rely on the dynamically linked libraries (DLLs) from the official RealPlayer to play the video, and thus require RealPlayer to be installed (or at least its DLLs, if not the actual player). However, the open source ffmpeg library (and its DirectShow counterpart ffdshow) can play the older H.263 RealVideo and does not require RealPlayer or any parts thereof. RealNetworks has also developed the open source Helix player, however support for RealVideo in the Helix Project is limited because RealNetworks is still keeping the codecs proprietary. RealPlayer does not record RealVideo streams, and RealNetworks has advertised this feature to content owners such as broadcasters, film studios, and music labels, as a means of discouraging users from illegally copying content. However, other software exists which can save the streams to files for later viewing. Such copying, known as time-shifting, is usually considered legal.
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