The cable industry seems to be rallying towards MPEG-4 as a standard for streaming media, "[leaving] the holy war among RealPlayer, Windows Media Player and [Apple's] QuickTime behind" according to this eetimes.com article.
While this may affect Apple and these other companies... the most interesting part of this article is the description how MPEG-4 is object (rather than frame) based:
"AT&T, for example, wants MPEG-4 for its 'object-based elements,' said Wood. Object-based technology would let content providers create personalized video streams for consumers, he noted. Advertisers, for example, could change the billboards shown in the background during hockey games or could change the color of a car in a TV commercial according to their needs or a viewer's preference."
