Local Markets Miami, Cincinnati & Houston Lead Streaming Media Consumption.

Nielsen//NetRatings reports that Miami, Cincinnati and Houston had the highest percentage of streaming media consumption in December 2000. Miami was No. 1 with 43 percent or 506,000 Web surfers accessing streaming media content from home.

“Miami has a vibrant cultural market with a growing online Hispanic population. The Hispanic community looks to national and international streaming media to find news, entertainment and other content that traditional outlets do not offer,” said T.S. Kelly, director of Internet Media Strategies, NetRatings.

Cincinnati followed closely with 41 percent or 327,000 Internet users accessing streaming media. Houston secured the No. 3 spot with 38 percent, Pittsburgh placed fourth at 37.9 percent and Hartford rounded out the top five with 37.7 percent (see Table 1).

The streaming media audience in December 2000 totaled 34.6 million people or 35 percent of the total active Internet population. In shear size, streaming media usage in New York and Los Angeles tallied the highest number of people accessing some form of rich media content. The New York market had 2.6 million at-home users accessing streaming media content, accounting for 37.4 percent of New York’s Web surfers. The streaming media audience in Los Angeles totaled 1.9 million individuals or 36.9 percent of the city’s Internet users.

“The diversity of rich media content has played a significant role in increasing the number of surfers accessing streaming media,” adds Kelly. “While broadband may take a few more years to hit critical mass in many of the top local markets, Web users are not shying away from accessing streaming media. Narrowband-friendly content, primarily audio, animation and mixed media are feeding the growing streaming media population.”