RealMedia is a multimedia container format created by RealNetworks. It is typically used in conjunction with RealVideo and RealAudio and is popular for streaming content over the internet.

Typically these streams are in CBR (constant bit rate).

Recently RealNetworks has developed a new container for VBR (variable bit rate) streams, named RealMedia variable bitrate

Support of RealMedia is available in a wide variety of multimedia players for different architectures/platforms.

Some people who have found the RealMedia player to be too invasive, have created alternative software such as Real Alternative.

RealVideo

RealAudio