Evidently, there is market for such services but the question is: how much of it can telco players hope to capture?

Video can be provided as TV or as video-on-demand (VoD), but the TV market in most countries are already dominated by several players. VOD operating costs can be divided into capital repayment, content royalties and general operating expenses, which include marketing and customer acquisition, maintenance and customer support, and managing and developing the VOD offer. A profit margin needs to be added as well. As VoD providers depend on the content owners for pricing and availability, quite a big slice of the revenue goes to the content owners.

Audio has its share of problems with illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing services, which generate vast traffic for little revenue. Although Apple iTunes has paved the way for the legal audio market, telco operators will have to compete with music retailers and ISPs in offering the most attractive range of content at the best prices. And again, even if they succeed, they would still have to share the revenue with the content owners. As for streaming audio, analysts say it must follow the revenue model of traditional broadcasting if it wants to succeed. This means that content has to be provided to consumers freely or very cheaply, not only to compete with traditional broadcasting for listeners but also because it's what consumers are used to. It would be hard to get listeners to pay a significant amount for what they are used to getting for free.

Most broadband providers see game content as one of the most attractive ways to show off the advantages of fatter pipes. "Looking at the world trend today, gaming is undeniably the key catalyst of broadband market growth," said Vasu Khunvasi, general manager of Asia Infonet (AsiaNet). There is revenue opportunity in games, especially with multiplayer role-play games. Technically, games that are played locally are just big files that have to be transferred to the console. Those that are played online require high-performance links and servers to manage interaction and identities. This is where the prospects are for telco operators.

Broadband communications service providers like Comcast, RCN, Yahoo! and Bell Canada Services offer services like games-on-demand which act as an incentive for customers to upgrade their bandwidth packages. This translates into an increase in revenue. Yoav Tzruya, Vice President of Products Markets Strategy for gaming company Exent said users who subscribe to games on demand services are 75% less likely to switch to other broadband providers.

With broadband driving the take up of online games, revenue streams continue to be built and it is now up to the service providers to ensure they are not missing out on the opportunities that arise.