Bean-Net, BitPass Partner on Streaming Solution

With online listening growing, two companies are touting a system that allows impulse purchases of content, including broadcasts.
Streaming media provider Bean-Net and Internet payments company BitPass are offering content providers a streaming system that allows such purchases. The arrangement lets consumers buy access to live or archived streaming content such as live shows, broadcasts and music. Competitive offerings require an upfront development and integration fee.
John Simkiss, founder of Bean-Net, anticipates demand among gamer communities, news sites and other industries that need a way to monetize media, video and audio programming.
“Content providers that routinely absorb bandwidth costs when they offer streaming content for free often pay the ultimate price by going out of business,” he said.
The Bean-Net and BitPass product is optimized for Windows Media Player. Pricing for streaming starts at $2.40 per simultaneous listener for up to 128 kbps.
According to recent statistics from Arbitron, online listenership is growing at an average 43 percent as more people get broadband connections at home and tune in for content that is unavailable or in short supply on commercial stations.