The CDN business segment grew at robust rates in 2004, and forecast to do so again in 2005. The increase in streaming media usage, audience size, high-value content published by larger Internet and major media brands, and broadband penetration has also broadened the scope of services and applications CDNs now offer. The 150 page, data rich report's top line findings include:

-Total retail bandwidth contracts to delivery Internet music radio and streaming video ranged between $117 and $235 million dollars in 2004
-Total bandwidth fees associated with streaming video and Internet music radio (including backhaul charges) averaged between $183 and $392 million dollars in 2004
-Bandwidth fees at the retail level for streaming video averaged about $1.75 per gigabyte transferred in 2004
-Bandwidth fees associated with Internet music radio streaming contracts averaged about $1 per gigabyte transferred during 2004
-Bandwidth fees for retail contracts in the streaming video segment have fallen by 42% since 2002 on a per gigabyte transferred basis
-Bandwidth fees for retail contracts in the Internet music radio segment have fallen by 47.3% since 2002 on a per gigabyte transferred basis
-Including charges for provisioning backhaul, streaming media (audio and video) is forecast to generate between $282 and $606 million dollars in 2005, most likely in the mid to upper range of that forecast

Also included in the report is revenue by CDN (Akamai, Limelight Networks, Speedera, Nine Systems, VitalStream and others), number of servers in deployment, total number of client contracts, average monthly recurring revenue (MRR), forecast revenue for 2005, business model analysis, top customers, channel marketing partners and areas targeted for R & D investmernt in 2004 and 2005.

Content distribution networks (CDNs) doubled--and in some cases tripled—revenue derived from streaming media operations in '04 compared to '03, coinciding with an 80% jump in video streams served for the year and 75% increase in Internet music hours.

Retail contracts to deliver streaming audio and video totaled about $230 million last year, with another $157 million needed to secure sufficient backhaul bandwidth to provision sufficient capacity, according to the CDN Market Share: A Complete Business Analysis '04 and '05 published by AccuStream iMedia Research.

CDN revenue for both streaming video and Internet radio is estimated to grow at 40+% in 2005, with total retail and backhaul market value of between $450 - $600 million dollars from delivery of news, film, sports, music and entertainment.

The report includes operational analyses of multiple CDNs, including business models, revenue, pricing, server numbers, co-location networks, network topologies, channel partners, core distribution competencies, R&D investments and content contracts.

The number of video streams and Internet music hours delivered by each CDN is broken out to reveal distribution share.

According to the report, the average cost per gigabyte of streaming video transferred in 2004 was $1.75, compared to $2.15 in 2003. The average price to deliver a gigabyte of Internet radio was $1 compared to $1.31 in 2003.

AOL, Akamai, MSN, Real Networks, Limelight Networks and Chaincast Networks are the largest content distributors. Many larger streaming portals such as Yahoo contract directly with directly with carrier suppliers for their capacity.

CDNs often focus on either Internet Radio or broadband video, although Akamai, AOL and Limelight Networks are strong in both categories.

"In 2004, CDNs delivered strong top line revenue growth, were in many cases cash flow positive and even generated positive net income," commented Paul A. Palumbo, director of research at AccuStream.

"CDNs are now full service networks that provide everything from stream authentication and secure content on a global edge basis to music and movie download management, and even sell advertising."

AccuStream iMedia Research publishes monthly, annual, semi-annual and custom streaming media reports with extensive data, trend comparisons and expert analysis.