Multicast Distribution

In addition to changes in broadcast technologies, a new era is dawning in the digital media industry, and the unicast Internet is simply not sufficient to meet the burgeoning demand for video services. Currently, OTT internet video (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, YouTube, CBS, HBO, etc.) is streamed to end user devices in unique one-to-one “unicast” sessions. Over 80% of current internet traffic is OTT video, and, at any given time, this consists of a relatively small number of newly released programs and popular mass appeal trending videos. As a result, a very large fraction of the internet’s capacity is being used to simultaneously transport millions of copies of the same content, just slightly time shifted. ARK will greatly reduce this massive data transmission inefficiency by combining its ATSC 3.0 network with newly available low cost storage to “multi-cast” the most in demand videos and store them in consumer edge devices (caching set-top boxes and mobile phones and tablets). Instead of a video being transported millions of times on demand, it will be transmitted once across ARK’s entire network, and stored locally in millions of edge devices. The video then only needs to be “released” from its DRM protected storage when the viewer wants to watch it. ARK can broadcast 7-10 TB/month of content per station, which equates to 2,300-3,300 hours of HD video per month.