Streaming media facts for kids

Streaming media is a way to watch videos, listen to music, or enjoy other digital content over the internet without having to download the whole file first. Imagine you're drinking from a water fountain – the water flows continuously as you drink. That's a bit like streaming! Instead of waiting for a whole bucket of water (a downloaded file), you get a steady stream of content right when you want it.

This cool technology sends tiny pieces of information, called "packets," from a special computer called a "server" to your device, like a tablet, phone, or smart TV. Your device then plays these packets almost instantly. This is different from downloading, where you have to wait for the entire movie or song to be saved on your device before you can start watching or listening. Streaming is super popular for things like watching movies and TV shows on demand, enjoying live TV, and listening to music online.

While we usually think of streaming as happening over the internet, it can also happen between devices in your home, like sharing a video from your computer to your TV using special home networks.

Where Did the Word "Streaming" Come From?

The word "streaming" was first used way back in the 1970s for special tape drives that moved slowly and continuously. In the early 1990s, people started using "streaming" to better describe how video and audio could be sent over computer networks, especially for "video on demand" (meaning you could watch what you wanted, when you wanted). Companies like Starlight Networks and RealNetworks were among the first to use this term for video and audio over the internet.

Early Ideas for Listening and Watching

Believe it or not, the idea of getting entertainment delivered to you goes back a long, long time!

• 1881: The Théâtrophone – This was like an early telephone service where people could listen to live opera and theater performances from their homes! It was around for over 50 years.
• 1897: The Telharmonium – This was a giant musical instrument that could send music over telephone lines.
• Early 1900s: Tel-musici and Muzak – In the US, services like Tel-musici and later Muzak (which played continuous background music in businesses) used electrical lines to send music without radio.
• 1929: The Telephone Music Service – In Pittsburgh, a service allowed people in bars and restaurants to pick a song from a huge library by calling an operator, who would then play the record, and the music would be sent over telephone lines to the jukebox! This service lasted until 1997!

These early inventions showed that people always wanted to enjoy media easily, even before computers and the internet existed.

How Streaming Grew Up

Early Days of Computers

In the middle of the 20th century, people dreamed of showing media on computers, but computers weren't powerful enough yet. By the late 1980s and 1990s, personal computers became much better. The main challenges for streaming were making sure computers could handle all the data fast enough and that networks could send it without interruptions. Back then, most audio and video were played from CDs or hard drives on your own computer.

Making it Possible: Data Compression

One of the biggest breakthroughs for streaming was data compression. Imagine trying to send a huge, heavy box across the country. It would be expensive and slow! Data compression is like squishing that heavy box into a much smaller, lighter package. This made it possible to send audio and video over the internet without needing super-fast connections that most people didn't have. For example, a raw, uncompressed CD song would need a lot of internet speed, but a compressed MP3 file needs much less!

The Internet Arrives

As the 1990s ended and the 2000s began, more and more people got access to the internet, and internet speeds got much faster. This was a huge help for streaming! Standard ways of sending information, like TCP/IP and HTTP (which your web browser uses), became common, and many companies started investing in internet technologies.

Companies and Competition

Pioneering Companies

Many companies helped build the streaming world. Xing Technology created "StreamWorks" for JPEG streaming, and Starlight Networks pioneered on-demand and live video streaming. Progressive Networks (later called RealNetworks) was also a big player. Microsoft developed ActiveMovie, which became part of Windows Media Player, and Apple introduced streaming in its QuickTime application. For a while, you often needed different programs to watch different streams!

YouTube and Flash

In 2005, a website called YouTube was founded, and it quickly became the most popular video streaming site. It started by using a technology called Flash to play videos. YouTube made it easy for anyone to upload and share videos, and it changed how people watched content online forever. Today, YouTube also offers live streaming!

Music Industry Changes

Streaming has completely changed the music industry. By 2015, streaming services were responsible for over a third of all music industry money, and that number has only grown! It's now the biggest way the music industry makes money.

The "Streaming Wars"

Starting in the late 2010s, a big competition began between video streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, and many others. People called this the "streaming wars"! Each service wanted to be the best and get the most subscribers.

A key way they competed was by offering exclusive content – shows and movies you could only watch on their platform. For example, Netflix started making its own shows like House of Cards. Then, older companies like Disney, which owns popular movies like Frozen and the Star Wars and Marvel series, started their own streaming service, Disney+, and brought all their content there. This meant you might need subscriptions to several services to watch all your favorite things.

As of September 2023, many streaming services even formed a group called the Streaming Innovation Alliance (SIA) to work together on industry issues.

How Streaming Works (Behind the Scenes)

Internet Speed (Bandwidth)

To stream smoothly, you need enough internet speed, also called bandwidth.

• For regular quality video, about 2 million bits per second (2 Mbit/s) is recommended.
• For high-definition (HD) video, you'll want around 5 Mbit/s.
• For super clear ultra-high-definition (UHD) video, you'll need about 25 Mbit/s. The faster your internet, the better your streaming experience!

Secret Codes (Protocols)

Video and audio files are compressed using special "coding formats" like MP3 for audio and H.264 for video. These compressed files are then put into "containers" like MP4. Then, they are sent from the streaming server to your device using "transport protocols" like HTTP.

Sometimes, if your internet connection isn't perfect, the stream might pause for a moment. This is called buffering, where your device is waiting to receive enough data to play smoothly. Streaming services try to send data in a smart way, adjusting the quality based on your internet speed so you can keep watching without too many interruptions.

Sharing the Load (Unicast, Multicast, CDNs)

Imagine 1,000 people all watching the same live show. If the server had to send 1,000 separate copies of the stream, it would be overwhelmed!

Unicast sends a separate copy to each person, which is common for most internet connections. Multicast is a clever way to send just one stream from the source to a group of people, which helps reduce the load on the server and network. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are like having many mini-servers spread out around the world. When you want to stream something, the CDN sends it from a server that's closest to you, making it faster and smoother.

Recording Streams

Many live streams can be recorded! Some media players, like VLC, allow you to record what you're watching. Also, platforms like Twitch and YouTube often automatically record live broadcasts so you can watch them later. This means you can catch up on a concert you missed or rewatch your favorite streamer's broadcast!

Cool Ways Streaming is Used

Streaming is used for so many cool things:

• Online Lectures: You can watch long educational videos and pause or repeat parts whenever you want.
• Concerts and Opera: Famous groups like the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera in New York sell live streams of their performances, sometimes even showing them in movie theaters around the world!
• Space: There's even a live stream from the International Space Station, letting you see Earth from above!
• Marketing: Businesses use streaming to advertise and connect with customers, especially with personalized ads that pop up based on what you like.

Interesting facts about streaming media

• A report from 2017 found that 70% of people watching content did so through a streaming service, and 40% of all TV watching was done this way – twice as much as five years before! Young people, especially, streamed a lot of their content.
• Streaming caused many DVD rental companies to close down. For example, RedBox, a company that let you rent DVDs from kiosks for 22 years, announced in July 2024 that it would be shutting down because almost everyone now subscribes to streaming services.
• Music streaming is one of the most popular ways people use streaming media.
• When many people had to stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, streaming services became busier than ever! Millions of people signed up for new streaming services, and global subscriptions went past 1 billion.
• In 1993, Severe Tire Damage was the first group to perform live on the internet! Scientists at Xerox PARC broadcast their performance, and people in places like Australia could watch it live. The video was tiny, and the audio was like a bad phone call, but it was a huge step!
• In 1995, Baseball and Symphony – RealNetworks broadcast a baseball game over the internet, and later that year, the Seattle Symphony performed the first symphonic concert online.

See also

In Spanish: Streaming para niños