The best features of streaming media are eliminating time delay and transmitting on internet. In other word, streaming attracts diffrent people in different place to receive the same content at the same time. Combine with massage transmitting function of internet , I think streaming media can be much more than just another copy of TV.
I remember when world cup held in 2006, several of my friends sent me messages about the games and players on MSN while watching world cup games on television. And I think a lot of people like to discuss the plots of TV drama while watching TV. So, if online chatting can be combined with streaming media, it will be like bring people who actually live thousand miles away sitting in the same living room for a TV show or a baseball game. People can talk with the people who have the same interests with them and share info on that.
And combining live news broadcast and instant message, instant message can help people to judge if the news is credible, because audience from different place can provide their views and knowledge on some subjects.
Another way to use instant message online with streaming media is language translating. Eventhough internet bring the TV shows crossing the border of countries, language barrier is still an obstacle for people from different place to receive the same content without time delay. Take Japanese drama, which is very popular among audience in asia, as an example, tv dramas were sold to TV companies in other country after 3 to 6 months from debut. But the prevailing of internet speeds up the processing, some people in Japan record the show and people who can translate it put on the translated title for it. After a day of a drama debut in Japan, people in China can download it and watch it without language barrier to understand it. However, their still one day delay between Japan and China audience. Applying streaming technique and instant message on this, put translated titles on instant message, then people in different country can understand it at the same time. Much more, they don't have to download and store them in their computer.
