Streaming Media Ad Market To Boom, Study SaysStreaming Media Ad Market To Boom, Study Says

Thanks to increased residential adoption of broadband Internet access, spending on streaming media-enabled advertising is expected to boom in the next few years, surging from $44 million in 2000 to $3.1 billion by 2005, according to a study by the Yankee Group.

In the study released Monday, Yankee Group analyst Steve Vonder Haar says that high-speed access is creating new classes of advertising such as "on-demand marketing," where companies provide audio and video infomercials to consumers who are interested in a particular product. "Automakers, for instance, could offer one- to two-minute clips demonstrating the features of specific new car models," the report explains.

"This enables a marketer to reach a consumer near the time of purchase consideration," Haar says. "It's the equivalent of putting your candy bar in the checkout aisle of the grocery store." Haar says on-demand ads are the ultimate in targeted advertising, since they're likely to be viewed only by those likely to actually make a purchase.

Along with more traditional ads such as the 10- to 15-second commercials placed into streaming media programming, Yankee figures that $170 million will be spent on streaming advertising in 2001. That figure should nearly triple to $488 million in 2002, jump to $1.1 billion in 2003, and surge to $1.9 billion in 2004.