| Technical model The business model is subject to the technical model.
The broadcast medium is limited, whether over-the-air (analog, digital or whatever comes next), cable, or ISP (fiber, copper, RF, ...).
Broadcasts go to everyone in the service area at once. For over-the-air and cable, the number of channels is limited by the bandwidth allocation and medium capacity. You can have a million sets tuned to the up to 350 subchannels (about 70 channels * about 5 subchannels each) and you'd still be using only the 350 subchannels of capacity. For digital cable there could be more channels. I think the digital cable box goes to channel 999.
Internet broadcasting (ISP-TV) enables each viewer to see a unique data stream, so the potential demand is much higher. (Check the population clocks at »www.census.gov/ .) On-demand cable programming would be similar if the selection is large enough.
So, if High-Def TV requires 2 Mb/s and there are 'only' a million people in a city, the potential load would require data rates of 2 Tb/s (»World Record: 25.6 Terabits Per Second) and the network switching devices would have to be able to handle it (»Cox: Fully Upgraded To 1Ghz By 2011).
Commercials are acceptable in moderation. After all, it is how the broadcasters get their revenues. One minute of ads per fifteen minutes of ISP-TV program is probably acceptable. One ad per few-minute clip gets tiresome after a few clips. Broadcasters will probably find some balance that will moderate the ISP-TV demand to somewhere between the ad-free DVD and commercial broadcast. (My TV-show DVDs only take about 45 minutes per hour show!) |
