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Published on 05 April 2019

Bandwidth limitations and threats of throttling are some of the challenges that must be overcome to enrich streaming subscription services.

Roughly 20 years ago, when the multi-week March Madness men’s college basketball tournament was streamed for the first time (by CBS), best effort streaming was hailed as impressive at a time when the internet was in its early years.

Since then, the focus has been on Quality-of-Experience (QoE) and delivering ads for sponsorships. The same holds true for a growing list of OTT services providers pitching those leaving cable TV.

Streaming: By the numbers

Those homes using streaming services separate from traditional pay “cable” TV offerings need to know about the Internet connections to view video in different resolutions/formats, including 4K.

For Netflix, the speed you need to handle 1080p high-definition (HD) streams is roughly 5 Mbit/sec. To handle 4K ultra-high definition (UHD) stream, which is a higher resolution format with four times more pixels, you’ll need a 25 Mbit/sec connection.

Many movie makers have shot their films in the higher 4K format so that consumers with 4K UHD TV sets can enjoy the more crisp and immersive viewing experience. If you did a side-by-side HD and 4K viewing comparison, the naked eye would detect the difference starting with 50-55-inch units.

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