[London, ENGLAND] Spaniards, Brits, Danes, French and
Germans are all more frequent users of streaming
media than Americans, according to new information
uncovered by research firm NetValue.
In January 2001, one in five Internet users in Spain
used streaming media from home, making the Spanish
the keenest viewers of live, Internet-delivered
audio and video in Europe.
NetValue’s research has also uncovered some other
unexpected findings.
For example, U.K. users of streaming media tend to
be older — a lot older — than those in Spain.
Whereas one in seven Internet users in the U.K.
used streaming media, 57 percent of them were
over 35, as opposed to only 38 percent in Spain.
“U.K. users are older, and they are more likely to
use streaming media to watch or listen to the news
— bbc.co.uk is the second most popular site for
streaming media,” said NetValue’s Alki Manias.
Apparently, 67 percent of visitors to the news
section of the BBC’s site (news.bbc.co.uk) are
35 and over.
In other statistics, the United States edged ahead
of Europe, U.S. users being more active than their
European counterparts, spending an average of 60
minutes using streaming media in January. U.K. users
were in second place with 30 minutes, while the
Germans spent just 12 minutes using the medium.
And yes, NetValue has sliced the figure by gender,
showing that the U.S. has the highest percentage of
women using streaming media (40 percent), vastly
more than Spain where just one in five users is
female.
What do these figures mean for content providers?
It is hard to say, especially as there is so much
local variation in the pattern of usage.
The streaming media industry is still in its infancy,
waiting for high speed access to become universal.
When that happens, the figures may well show the
majority of the population viewing live media over
the Internet.
