Streaming Wars: From Broadcast.com to the Future of Digital Media

Winner of the 2025 Best Indie Book Award® for Nonfiction, Streaming

"Technology has a way of making us look to the future but forget the past. The past history of streaming is rich in learnings for those willing to put aside their perceptions and embrace a broader perspective. Patrick Seaman provides that perspective with his retrospective account of the origins of the streaming wars. A valuable tool for learning to manage change."
James W Keyes, Former CEO, 7-Eleven and Blockbuster; Author, Education is Freedom

"Not just a history of broadcast.com and today’s multi-channel, live-streamed sports and entertainment world, but also a reminder of how much can change in so little time. And that we are still in the middle of this crazy rapid multi-stranded technology development today. So looking forward to seeing what comes next. And hope I am around long enough to experience it."
Ian Charles Stewart, co-Founder, Wired Magazine

Before Netflix, YouTube, or Spotify shaped global media, there was Broadcast.com. It was the scrappy startup that proved live streaming could work when many experts insisted it was impossible.

Streaming Wars is the inside account from Patrick Seaman, an original team member who helped build the platform that sold to Yahoo for 5.7 billion dollars and became part of the foundation of today’s streaming industry. This book goes behind the scenes to show how a small Dallas company pushed the limits of early Internet technology, reached millions of listeners, and forced the media world to take streaming seriously.

Inside the story you will discover:

• How a handful of engineers and producers stitched together equipment, protocols, and ideas to stream the first live sporting events on the Internet
• The technical challenges of the early web, and how Broadcast.com created its own answers when no playbook existed
• The business strategies that turned experimental audio feeds into a billion dollar acquisition
• What it took to negotiate with leagues, build early edge networks, manage redundancy, and keep streams live when failure meant losing everything
• How today’s major streaming platforms continue to borrow lessons from those early years
• Where streaming is headed next, including real time sports engagement, personalized audio, 5G scale, and the next generation of immersive media

Streaming Wars gives readers a clear view of how the industry grew from a garage experiment to a global infrastructure. It is written for technology professionals, media executives, founders, and anyone interested in how innovation actually happens inside a fast moving startup.

This new award-winning edition celebrates the book’s recognition as a Best Indie Book Award winner and highlights the story of a team that helped change digital media forever.