The utility of this proposal is to provide a means for materially reducing the Infrastructure cost and Network burden of established networks of VoD services. It does not endeavor to replace VoD. It is a hybrid extension to the current methodology. It does so in a manner that reduces costs by orders of magnitude, targeting the highest volumes of content in an inefficient content delivery system.
Hybrid VoD promotes residential playout of
Speculatively Cached media assets.
These assets are delivered by a Multicast means.
This multicast distribution means is integrated with a conventional VoD application. This is presented in a manner that is no different from the VoD experience presented for longer tail unicast content.
The Content Service Provider retains their distinctive look, feel and branding that is their distinctive product. The local cached content would be transparently integrated into the viewing experience when it is accessible. The Subscriber would remain largely unaffected by this cost saving hybridization.
There is one important exception that should be noted. The ability for the user to Start, Stop Fast-Forward, Rewind, Skip and Review would be substantially improved for locally cached content. The current VoD operation, with its long round trip network latency, makes these controls at best, user unfriendly. At worst, user antagonistic.
Without this enormous latency in VoD control of these functions, the user experience would be greatly improved.
Three Essential Modalities
Hybrid VoD 