Streaming Media - Contentious Market, But A Bright Future

BUT A BRIGHT FUTURE CONTENTIOUS MARKET

By the late 1990s, a handful of products emerged to dominate the market for streaming-media players, namely Microsoft's Windows Media, RealNetworks's RealAudio and RealVideo, and QuickTime. However, no clear standard emerged, and streaming media purveyors were obliged to gear their products to one or another software program, thereby fracturing the market and inhibiting the growth of streaming media. Gradually, streaming media solutions were manufactured for compatibility with more than one of these products, but the bitter rivalry between the software companies persisted.

Outside of traditional broadcasting and its attendant advertising, streaming media offered myriad other applications as well. While all uses of streaming media faced the same problems of distribution, it was finding its way into distance-learning programs, internal company training and communications, inter-business conferencing, and even the distribution of amateur films.