Streaming Media Is Not A Product Or Service, It’s A Technology

For a long time now, the term streaming media has been thought of as something sold by vendors. For the first few years of any new technology, the terminology is bound to get confusing and used in the incorrect manner. But 13 years since streaming media technology was first used on the Internet, I think it’s time we describe the technology and services correctly.

Streaming media is not a service. You don’t sell streaming media. It’s a technology, plain and simple. I see a lot of websites by industry vendors that list streaming media as one of their services. What they should be saying is they sell content delivery. If that content is delivered via streaming, downloading, progressive downloading, webcasting etc…who cares? I know that many use the term this way because that’s what the market bears, it’s the way customers refer to it and it’s what everyone has gotten use to. I’m guilty of the same, as that’s how I sold the service back when I was at Globix. But I think 13 years later, we are at the point where as an industry we should be working together to describe and sell the services correctly.