A review of more than 1000 Web sites during the second quarter of 2000 revealed that 61 percent of large sites -- those with over 1,000 Web pages -- offer audio, video or Flash content.

Perhaps more surprising, 57 percent of these large sites used outside multimedia hosting services to provide this content.

Among the Web sites delivering multimedia content, the most popular media formats include Macromedia Flash (64 percent), RealNetworks (43 percent), Apple QuickTime (27 percent) and Microsoft MSVideo (26 percent).

Decise, an ASP for Web site intelligence, gathered the data during Q2 as part of its weekly automated and comprehensive review of hundreds of Web sites.

"Our clients use the service to keep a continuous eye on what competitors are doing with their Web sites, as well as on overall Web site trends," Ron Mester, president and chief executive officer of Decise, explains. "And with multimedia content and delivery mechanisms becoming increasingly important, we've made it our business to stay on top of the latest trends in this area."

More than 40 different third-party multimedia hosting services were found to be delivering multimedia content for the 1,000 Web sites in the sample. The five top ASPs serving more than 10 percent of the large Web sites using outside services include: Yahoo!Broadcast, Akamai, RealNetworks, Activate Corp. and CNBC/Dow Jones Business Video.