"Current slowdowns in broadband proliferation have likely forced anyone who'd planned to build a business on streaming video to drastically scale back growth projections," said Ric Dube, senior analyst with Webnoize , an Internet research firm. "Nobody will ever pay for streaming video content at speeds below broadband. 
"Cable television's quality and price set standard expectations. Whether or not speed is there, pay services compete with quality control, customer service, price and selection." 
No fewer than four subscription services -- operated by Internet media companies, the five major record labels and the movie studios -- are slated to launch before the end of the year, bringing unprecedented popular content to users for monthly fees. 
MusicNet and Pressplay will offer music from the five major recording labels -- virtually all of the music heard on commercial radio -- as streams and downloads. Moviefly is slated to sell access to films released in theaters. 
Those initiatives only offer digital entertainment in one format -- either audio or video. But RealNetworks will offer a mix of music, radio, television and movie highlights with its new RealOne service. 
For a monthly fee, users can get live radio broadcasts of all Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association games, online video highlights of NBA games and sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes footage of television programming. 
Despite the slowing broadband growth, much of the audio content can be accessed with a dial-up modem without a noticeable drop off in service, said Scott Ehrlich, RealNetwork's vice president of programming. So, he said, consumers can experience shows according to their connection speed. 
The first iteration of the service -- the Real GoldPass -- has already drawn 400,000 subscribers, each paying $10 per month. 
"One of the issues with broadband is that it isn't worth a certain amount of money per month to get text faster," Ehrlich said. "One of the things that we want to do with RealOne is provide a reason for people to upgrade their connections." 
The Universal Music Group's digital incubator, eLabs, decided to forgo a subscription model for one of its products, instead launching The Viewing Lounge video service that uses repurposed television commercials as its revenue stream. 
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