Broadcast television in an IP world

Fri Nov 17 19:45:32 UTC 2017

Once ISPs became able to provide sufficient speeds to end users, video
over the internet became a thing.

This week, the FCC approved the ATSC3 standard.

What if instead of moving to ATSC3, TV stations that broadcast OTA
became OTT instead?  Could the Internet handle the load?

Since TV stations that are OTA are "local", wouldn't this create an
instant CDN service for networks such as CBS/ABC/NBS/FOX/PBS since these
networks have local presence and can feed ISPs locally?

And while a small ISP serving Plattsburg NY would have no problem
peering with the WPTZ server in Plattsburg, would the big guys like
Comcast/Verizon be amenable to peering with TV stations in small markets?

Some of them would also be selling transit to the TV station (for
instance, to serve its Canadian audience, WPTZ would need transit to go
outside of Comcast/Frontier and reach canadian IP networks).

But a local TV station whose footprint is served by the local ISPs may
not need any transit.

The PAY TV servives, if HBO is any indication will also move OTT, but be
served in the more traditional way, with a central feed of content going
to a CDN which has presence that is local to large ISPs (or inside ISPs).

We the traditional BDU (canada) MVPD (USA) is abandonned by the public
and TV stations , PAY TV services and SVOD services such as Netflix are
all on the Internet, would this represent a huge change in load, or
just incremental growth, especially if local TV stations are served locally?

Just curious to see if the current OTA and Cable distribution models
will/could morph into IP based services, eliminating the "cable TV" service.