Digital Island nets $45m to explore streaming media

NEWS The ebusiness network provider Digital Island will receive $45m in equity from Compaq, Intel and Microsoft to develop streaming media infrastructure for broadcasting globally on the internet. The service aims to reach up to 7.5 million viewers simultaneously and claims to be the first global rich-media venture aimed at providing infrastructure services for the entertainment and publishing sector. Digital Island has standardised Intel architecture-based Compaq servers and it is planning to deploy up to 8,000 servers worldwide in regional data centers. Research firm Jupiter communications have predicted the market for streaming media content delivery will grow from $78m in 2000 to $2.5bn by 2004.