AccuStream iMedia Research reported that broadband video streaming edged past
narrowband streaming for the first time in 2001, even though the number of
narrowband Web users continued to far outnumber broadband subscribers.
AccuStream said 51 percent of the 2.5 billion video streams served last year
were at broadband bit rates.
Broadband streaming was driven by the availability of more broadband content,
higher broadband penetrations and the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks.
Top streaming categories include news and information, music, sports,
film-related content and Internet television, AccuStream said.
Broadband users accessed an average of seven streams per month, while
narrowband users averaged just over one stream per month.
'The major over-the-air and Internet brands now control the lion's share of
streaming media audiences,' AccuStream director of research Paul Palumbo said in
a prepared statement.
'AOL's [America Online Inc.] broadband platform, AOL+, and RealNetworks'
[RealNetworks Inc.] various subscription and free sites are significant
distribution points in streaming media,' he added.
