LONDON -- Arriving at Streaming Media Europe 2001 via the Docklands Light Railway, one can't help but see London's Millennium Dome hovering like a big white elephant in the distance -- a reminder that some things just don't turn out as hoped.
This week's trade show, like the dome, is missing some big-name attractions. Since the event is generally a good barometer for the health of the sector, this doesn't portend well for the streaming media sector in Europe.
Fear of more terrorist attacks kept some sponsors away, but, as one forlorn-looking exhibitor exclaimed, "I mean, where's Apple, where's Akamai"?
Many of those working the booths recall a different scene last year, when customers lined up, eager to get their hands on the latest streaming technology, product announcements were many and no-shows few.
One sales rep from a streaming software company admitted that business is glacial but they're hanging in for the launch of Europe's much-hyped 3G networks. He didn't know when or if that would truly materialize.
With NetRadio and iBeam the latest streaming casualties this month, there's pressure on established companies like Microsoft and RealNetworks to show up and rally the troops at leading events like this one.
Microsoft is here, chiefly because it can afford to be. RealNetworks has used it to unveil the RealOne Platform, its latest media platform, which makes it easier for content providers to mix and match their multimedia content and work in commerce capabilities.
Rob Glaser, CEO of RealNetworks, touted via promotional material rather than in person that the new platform would draw more users and developers toward audio-visual content on the Web. There are also a number of startups offering an array of content management solutions.
It's hard to pick which ones will still be around in two years' time. The technology is here, but the customers aren't.
There are many putting a brave face on the state of the streaming media industry, but recent cost-per-user reports from Streaming Media, along with the volume of streaming media failures, show that there is a fundamental problem: Streaming media costs far outweigh the money made from the content in return.
Increasingly, the ones left standing will be the biggest brands, both online and offline, who can make it pay to use and develop these new technologies on a large scale.
A case in point is one of the more intriguing first-timers to the conference.
BBC Technology is a new spin-off from the vast BBC mothership, which recently got the go-ahead to commercially exploit the groundbreaking technologies coming out of the BBC's R&D arm. It also snapped up Intel's European Streaming Media Services division earlier this year, after the chipmaker lost its enthusiasm for the streaming content market.
BBCT is in a better position than most if it can successfully leverage the BBC's unwieldy but powerful assets and not end up biting the hand that feeds it. The group's Head of Streaming Media Services, Alison Pugh, said the company is already working with major blue chips to supply them with end-to-end streaming media solutions.
"They trust the BBC as a media brand, and we're getting tremendous response on that alone," she said.
