Confirming source-routed multicast is dead on the public Internet

Fri Aug 3 06:34:06 UTC 2018

On 1/Aug/18 19:43, Tarko Tikan wrote:

>  
>
> We are an IPTV provider in europe and we definetly see share of linear
> TV (that we are delivering via intra-AS multicast today) decreasing YOY.
>
> OTT plays a big part but even more customers use our own on-demand
> services including network PVR.
>
> Numbers don't add up yet but in 3-4 years even the intra-AS multicast
> will not make sense for us any more, easier/better to deliver
> everything via unicast.

I fully expect this to trend.

In Africa, linear (pay) TV is on the down every month, and the only
reason it's mostly still seeing some patronage is because of the sports
channels which "cannot be" unbundled from the full package. The other
reason it's still marginally alive is because of customers that can't
spare enough "data" to do the majority of their entertainment online.

I know several power users that have deliberately cut the linear TV
cord, have gone fully VoD, and have managed to make arrangements to
stream sports shows in other ways.

The leading pay TV operator in sub-Saharan Africa, Multichoice (DStv)
are thinking about their future and are providing the ability for
customers to stream all of their channels online, either in real-time or
as post-aired VoD content. They've also launched ShowMax, which is their
offering to compete with Netflix, Hulu, e.t.c.

I was in Malaysia the other day, and Astro are definitely struggling
with the declining demand in their pay TV service (both satellite- and
IPTV-based).

I'm with Tarko when I say in 5 or so years, Multicast for IPTV will
begin to die off because customers will be moving more to VoD use-cases.

Mark.