Re: Broadcast television in an IP world

[Masataka Ohta <mohta () necom830 hpcl titech ac jp>]

Jean-Francois Mezei wrote:

> > It is merely that third parties should pay ISPs offering multicast
> > service for them. Amount of payment should be proportional to
> > bandwidth used and area covered.
>
> Since multicast benefits the ISP the most, why should the ISP charge the
> content provider for multicast?

For prioritization, without which multicast does not work over congested
links.

> The content provider (lets say local TV station that broadcasts the
> Superbowl) can just unicast to the ISP a single stream, and give the
> ISPs some pizza sized box (lets call it an "Appliance") and that box
> then provides unicast delivery to each customer watching the Superbowl.

Have you considered CAPEX and OPEX of the boxes?

> And with the switch to on-demand programming, one wonders if the cost of
> setting up multicast all the way from the "border" to every bit of CPE
> equipment is worth it if it is only truly beneficial for the Superbowl
> and a couple of Hollywood awards ceremonies per year.

Aren't you arguing against your boxes?

                                                        Masataka Ohta