9781422277362

Tech 2.0

consumers access the content without first downloading it to their computers. The first events streamed were live concerts, in 1994. The next year, the sports network ESPN streamed radio coverage of a baseball game. Streaming audio was easier, because it took less band- width. The technology of the day limited the picture quality of video streams. Through the 1990s, Microsoft, a major software company, worked on improving streaming video. Sometimes they did this by buying small companies that had developed useful technology. But Microsoft had competition. In 1997, RealNetworks offered consum- ers access to hundreds of radio stations over the internet, and its soft- ware could stream some video too. But through the 1990s, picture

RealNetworks was the first streaming site to break out.

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