Boost for multimedia advertisers

By Dirk Smillie

  The Real Player is about to become the Real Advertiser.
   Real Networks, the leading maker of software for streaming audio and video on the web, announced yesterday that it will launch a high-speed, ad- supported search engine in partnership with portal Snap.com.
   By linking the search engine to its Real Player software, Real Networks may give a big boost to advertisers looking to reach web users with multimedia ads. Internet searchers using the portal will be exposed to streaming advertisements while they wait for search results.
   Later this year, Real Networks plans to roll out an even faster ad-supported search site for users with high-speed web access.
   Jay Kim, internet analyst for Paul Kagan & Associates, a media research firm in Carmel, California, terms the Real Networks/Snap.com alliance a "portal approach with tremendous value." That value comes from "attaching advertising to the gatekeeper," he says.
   The deal reminds him of a broadcast analogy: "Imagine if advertisers were able to deliver ads directly to your television set, which you see regardless of what channel you tune into." Compared to banner ads and interstitials, says Kim, streaming media "is a far more efficient way to distribute advertising."
   For Snap.com, the value of the alliance will be the site's ability to differentiate itself from other portals by focusing on web audio and video. Real Networks, in turn, will share advertising revenues with Snap, which will reportedly pay Real Networks a fee for every user.
   As cable modems and set-top boxes expand web bandwidth, improving the speed and quality of multimedia streaming is seen as a key growth area on the internet.
   More than 60 million people have downloaded the Real Player software, making it the leader in internet audio. About half of those have the latest version, Real Player G2. To use the new search engine users will have to download an additional piece of software to the player.
   Although the market leader, Real Networks faces real competition. Spinner.com and RadioWave.com already carry advertising alongside the content they stream on their audio players. The difference, of course, is that these players only stream audio from their own sites. The Real Networks/Snap.Com portal could ultimately link to the over one million pages across the web that now offer video or audio streaming.
   One question that remains is just when the "rich media" site will appear. Stories this week about the agreement in the New York Times and on the Reuters news wire made no mention of the launch date. Calls by Media Life to Real Networks, asking for comment on the deal, went unreturned.