85 MILLION BROADBAND USERS TO CREATE A $17 BILLION STREAMING MEDIA MARKET

VisionConsult's new Opportunities in Streaming Media Report 2000 is here! VisionConsult estimates that the US will have 35 million broadband homes by 2005, and Europe 30 million. With the rest of the world at 20 million, this provides a total of 85 million broadband homes worldwide. This will provide a rich potential for subscription streaming services and rich media advertising, especially when combined with movie and multimedia elements.

"VisionConsult forecasts that broadband users, as they are more committed to their Internet service and require attractive and informative services from it, will provide a market with higher streaming subscription penetration", says VisionConsult President, Barclay Dutson. "As users will have to pay at least $500 a year for high speed access, they will be prepared to pay for improved business content and home entertainment to add value to their experience. This is the basis of VisionConsult's broadband streaming uptake model of $17 billion by 2005". Streaming is growing exponentially, doubling in size every 6 months. Industry statistics in the new expanded report include new industry forecasts to 2005, including broadband penetration, as well as the actual numbers of streams served a month by leading broadcasters in 2000. VisionConsult even includes actual international streaming results from the Big Brother TV and webcast show in the USA, UK, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as the 2000 results for the Victoria's Secret lingerie show from Cannes, France. New Chapters in this Edition include:

• New Broadband Streaming Forecasts
• New Streaming Media US, Europe and Global Revenue Forecasts
• Streams served on leading sites 2000
• Windows Media Player 7.0
• RealSystem 8
• Digital Music Distribution
• Streaming Networks
• Mobile Internet
• Digital Rights Management
• Financial Billing Systems

The first edition of VisionConsult's 300 page report was subscribed to by leading international clients in Australia, Europe, and North America, including ISPs, streaming software suppliers, network operators, financial services, investment banks, tv and radio and sports broadcasters, e-commerce companies, leading management consultants, streaming search engines, publishers, creative services, network equipment manufacturers, telcos, and satellite operators and service providers.

VisionConsult estimates an active world monthly market of 60 million streamers Half a billion streams will be served in 2000. International streamers are growing fast, with one-third of media player downloads, and 40% of streaming site traffic, now coming from outside North America. One-third of US internet users already tune into internet radio. 50% of US streaming media users are expected to have broadband access by 2002 either at home or in the office, and international businesses will need to roll out broadband access to compete. Industry statistics detailed in this new report underline the facts behind the growth.
There are:

New Streaming Content Delivery Networks

New networks are being implemented that claim to be able to handle close to 1 million simultaneous streams, although VisionConsult estimates the largest number of simultaneous streams to have been served to date to be 60,000. A major development to assist in improving streaming quality of service and reducing costs over the past year are the content distribution networks and streaming media networks. It is faster and cheaper to serve data-rich content from servers located close to users at the "edge" of the Internet than from centrally-located servers. Content distribution networks also protect against Web site traffic spikes. $7 billion of capital spending on these networks is expected by 2003. *ENDS*

Notes to Editors:

VisionConsult is an independent international media research consultancy and report publisher, with objective views and recommendations. VisionConsult is a member of the International Webcasting Association. This new report includes research and interviews carried out by the research team at the NAB Convention in Las Vegas, Streaming Media in New York, Amsterdam and San Jose, Media Streaming Barcelona, and Narrowcast and the RealNetworks Conference Paris. A new VisionConsult company is being established in Berlin with partners Dr Wolf Siegert and Jean-Claude Bisenius to assist clients in the largest European streaming market.