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AccuStream Research: CDN Market Share Shifts Highlight Four-Year $1.65 Billion Sector Growth; Flash at 21.9% Stream Share in '06

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 November 2006, 12:00 CST

Market share shifts in content distribution network (CDN) volume and contracts, media player format preferences and billing models highlight the $1.65 billion digital distribution market over the past four years.

The report, CDN Growth and Market Share Shifts: 2002 -- 2006 published by AccuStream iMedia Research, forecasts commercial market value (retail and backhaul) in 2006 will make up 36% of the $1.65 billion four-year total in media and entertainment, including content, streaming advertising, movie and music downloads and User Generated Video (UGV) distribution.

UGV is expected to add between $28 and $41 million to the total bandwidth services segment in 2006, with 95th percentile billing models attached to the majority of those upload segment deals.

The report contains detailed analysis of UGV 95th percentile billing (which can be 50% lower than gigabytes delivered pricing in some cases), plus a direct comparison of both 95th percentile and gigabytes transferred models.

Moreover, while the gigabytes model is employed extensively for branded media contracts (on the order of 70% of accounts), as much as 50% of streams are delivered under 95th percentile pricing.

Each year 2002 through 2006 is reviewed in detail, with thorough analysis of pricing, market evolution and growth, business dynamics and CDN share shifts.

In 2006 as much as 35% of streaming video was delivered via direct bandwidth contracts, with the comparable for Internet music radio at 21.8%.

Two years ago, Limelight Networks had a 4.4% share of video streams served, increasing to over 16% in '06.

Akamai has historically held an 8% - 12% share of video streams served via individual contracts, but is often chosen as part of multi-vendor deals with CDNs such as Limelight and Vitalstream.

Media player format share analysis for 2006 confirms Windows Media remains dominant with a 50.8% of video streams served, followed by Flash at 21.9%, AOL Media Player at 11%, Real at 9.3% and Quicktime at 2+%.

Flash share increased in 2006, growing by approximately 95% from 11.2% in 2005. Flash has a 97% share of the UGV segment.

AccuStream iMedia Research (http://www.accustreamresearch.com) publishes reports on streaming media, streaming advertising, streaming subscriptions, UGV, download media and CDN research.

Source: Business Wire

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