Streaming media is the latest techno beast to be tamed online and if recent stats are any indication it may well surpass television as the media of choice.

The majority of streaming content last year was created by major news organizations like CNN and MSNBC. Video clips of important events such as the Florida recount vote drew unprecedented amounts of traffic.

InternetNews recently quoted T.S. Kelly, director of Internet Media Strategies at Net Ratings as saying that, "Streaming consumption is closely linked to huge media events.... Events such as the Super Bowl, Olympics and Election 2000 significantly contributed to the increased use of streamed audio and video content."

Patricia Jacobus of CNET wrote in January that an industry report by DB&P/ Webcast Track revealed that the presidential election controversy, music videos and the reality TV show "Survivor" helped to boost streaming media on the Internet 215 percent last year.

The World Wide Wrestling Federation and the music video site Launch, each accounted for about 7 million streams of video a month, she further reported.

InternetNews reported that a Nielsen//NetRatings study revealed that November streaming media consumption was at an all-time high, with 35 million at home Web users accessing streaming content in comparison to 21 million during the same month in 1999.

Media streaming has also been very popular for watching sporting events. Cecily Barnes of CNET wrote in January that a partnership between Major League Baseball Advanced Media, and Virage software will not only allow video to be streamed online but you will also be able to search for specific clips as well.

Barnes reported that by indexing most of the 2001 baseball season on MLB.com, fans will be able to call up a home run by Sammy Sosa or Barry Bonds, rather than having to watch precut clips posted by news organizations.

It is this type of flexibility that gives media streaming advantages over television broadcasts.

John Townley recently reported that Nielsen//NetRatings data showed that nearly 33 million individuals surfing from home and about 17 million surfing from work accessed some form of rich-media content in September.

He wrote, "Considering the overall reliability of office networks and their higher speeds and instant access, it is clear why sites such as ON24, Bloomberg News, and Yahoo!... have catered to the high-speed group in the workplace."

Townley further wrote that, 56 percent of all active workplace consumers of streaming media go online Friday to watch things like movie trailers, weekend performance results from Wall Street and live weather forecasts.

Watching movie trailers is one of the more popular uses for streaming media. By going to one of the movie sites and clicking on the trailer you get the preview of the film you are thinking about seeing.

Rather than downloading the movie or music you just play it via the Internet through media streaming. This saves a lot of downloading time and space on your hard drive. As anyone who had done any downloading of music or video files knows, the files are large and take a long time to download. Media steaming provides instant playing.

If you don't have a high speed Internet connection, then media streaming is probably not something you will want to access. This is because streaming media requires lots of bandwidth and only those individuals with high speed broadband connections can access it properly. Without the latest technology the experience can be frustrating.

On the other hand you may want to pay attention for future reference because like everything on the Internet the future is already past.

In order to play streaming files you need to download a player. The three most popular players, which are all free online, are RealNetworks' RealPlayer, Apple's QuickTime or Microsoft's Media Player.

Patricia Jacobus of CNET wrote in January that according to a Jupiter Media Metrix report, RealNetworks had maintained an edge over rival Microsoft in media streaming technology. "In November, about 28 percent of consumers who use computers in U.S. homes chose RealNetworks' RealPlayer to watch videos or listen to music online. That same month, 22 percent used Microsoft's Windows Media Player 6 or 7. Apple's QuickTime was used by 4 percent," she reported.

Webcasts have been used by some of the key players to show off their streaming technology. Gwendolyn Mariano of CNET reported in November that Microsoft's Webcast of Madonna's London concert had been intended to showcase the company's multimedia technology, but had left many virtual fans unimpressed. It drew 9 million logons, she reported.

The media stream was delivered at 700 kbps for people with extremely fast Internet connections and at 300, 128, 80 and 56 kbps for people with slower connections. An audio only stream was also delivered at 28.8-kbps streams so that people with slow connections could hear the concert.

Mariano further reported that RealNetworks has also been involved in several high-profile streaming events, including the Webcast of Victoria's Secret fashion show and an Internet broadcast of the TV show "Big Brother."

David Lake of the Industry Standard reported in September that an estimated 2 million people tuned in for the 15-minute May Internet broadcast of Victoria's Secret models strutting lingerie in the Paris fashion show.

In a November article for InternetNews John Townley reported that in a study conducted by MeasureCast, Inc./Harris Interactive 67 percent of the online population is familiar with streaming media. Of that percentage, men at 76 percent were more familiar than women at 58 percent.

Seventy one percent of people with household incomes of $50,000 or higher is familiar with streaming in comparison to only 65 per cent of people with household incomes of less than $50,000.

It was also reported that people with high-speed connections to the Web, which was calculated to be 11.2 million home users in November 2000, were more likely to consume streaming media. For instance, active users with a broadband connection of over 56 Kbps were 50 percent more likely to access streaming media than their dial-up counterparts at 56 Kbps and below.

According to Mark A. Mowrey in an article in the Industry Standard in September, Jupiter Communications predicts that 23 percent of homes with Internet access, or 15 million households, will surf via broadband connections in 2003. IDC offers an even higher estimate: 21 million, accounting for 32 percent of online homes."

T.W. Rabbit of PCWORLD reported in October that a study released through the National Association of Broadcasters revealed that "...in the average American home (without a broadband Internet connection), a resident typically spends 33 percent$of his or her "media time" with television, followed by radio at 28 percent; the Internet trails at 11 percent.

But in a home with broadband access, the study finds, a person typically spends 21 percent of her or his "media time" online, close to the 24 percent of the time spent watching television and 21 percent listening to radio."

This correlation indicates that as Internet users with broadband connections increase less time will be spent in front of the television and more time on the Internet.

The difference between Internet media streaming and television broadcasting is that eventually there will be unlimited choice online. Instead of shows being scheduled at specific times like they are on television, the choice for online files will be unlimited offering availability at any time of the day or night.

At this time however, media streaming has its limitations. For instance watching features films via media streaming is still a long ways off.

In December Patricia Jacobus of CNET quoted Jim Penhune director of media and entertainment strategies at The Yankee Group as saying, "Forget five-minute animated shorts or two-minute music videos...We're talking about a two-hour movie and getting the thing through the network and onto the set-top box or onto the computer... distributing feature films online is still years away," he said.