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2008 Year in Review: Live streaming blows up, Olympics leads the way

December 24, 2008 — 10:56am ET | By Pete Wylie

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2008 saw the emergence of live streaming as a viable delivery method for high-demand events. The Democratic and Republican National Conventions, President-elect Barack Obama's acceptance speech, and, most importantly and impressively, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, were all successively streamed to millions of viewers.

The Olympics especially demonstrated a lucrative market for sports content, as NBC delivered 2,000 hours of coverage between its live and on-demand efforts to millions of viewers. While NBC reported only $5.75 million in revenue from the 72 million online video streams it provided, it convincingly demonstrated that the format was attractive to consumers.

And where there are large audiences, advertisers are sure to follow eventually. There remains much work to be done and innovations to be made before live streaming of events is a cash cow, but by the time the 2012 Olympics roll around, expect that bridge to have been crossed.