AccuStream Report Reveals Strong Growth in 2004
Looking Ahead
Accustream’s report not only summarizes the previous year, it also forecasts the future. According to this report, streaming media usage is expected to grow by another 50% in 2005. While that number may seem to indicate a relative slowdown in streaming adoption compared to 2004, Palumbo claims, "I’m always on the low side. Last year I forecasted 40% growth and it was 80. When I’m wrong, I’d like to be wrong on the conservative side." As for 2005, he says, if market growth "ends up at 50%, it’ll still be a big year."
To generate these reports, AccuStream relies on Palumbo’s proprietary database as well as the company’s relationships with most of the major CDNs. "We poll everybody every month and get their server log data," says Palumbo. "At the end of the year, it’s all added up. Then when reports come out they’re a total-year analysis along with forecasting and a historical perspective." AccuStream strives to gather as much data as it possibly can, although its scope doesn’t include smaller sites that include streaming. "We go down to sites that serve 15,000 streams a month," says Palumbo. "There might be some sites out there doing a million streams that we don’t have, but we’ve got pretty close to every one of them. And when you’re talking about 14.2 billion total streams, a few million here and there aren’t that relevant."
Metrics Methods
AccuStream’s customers include the Associated Press, Yahoo!, Disney, and AOL, as well as a host of venture capitalists, bandwidth providers, advertisers, and more. For upwards of $2,000, these customers receive reports that break down a tremendous amount of data into categories. "All the sites are listed by the total number of streams served per month," says Palumbo. "We break it out by content category: news, sports, information, music videos, general entertainment, and Internet TV, which would be things like ads that are designed for the Super Bowl but also air on the Internet." Unlike television ratings, all of AccuStream’s data is based on cumulative rather than simultaneous usage, enabling the reporting of data like how long people viewed streams. AccuStream’s reports also include additional features like historical comparisons and in-depth interviews with industry participants.
AccuStream also reports on a number of other aspects of the content delivery chain, including the CDN space, streaming advertising and subscriptions, content category analysis, and wireless streaming. But Palumbo’s aspirations extend beyond merely writing up research reports. He’s currently readying the launch of a radio show called the iMedia Market Report in which he will interview a series of guests on topics ranging from interactive broadcasting to on-demand meetings and more. You can learn more on his Web site, www.imediamarketreport.com.
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