

Ask HN: Could Netflix circumvent cable by broadcasting over the air? (Aereo) - anovio

A few years ago in the mid to late 2000s, Google was interested in bidding on over-air broadcast waves that were no longer being used by the government. The assumed motivation behind the bidding was Google&#x27;s entrance into the data distribution industry to compete directly with cellular phone providers.<p>If private companies can purchase certain over-air broadcast waves, what&#x27;s to stop a holding company owned by Netflix to purchase a channel and stream directly to each person&#x27;s home.
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tptacek
Nothing, except that to recoup the spectacular costs of deploying OTA HD video
broadcasting in each area they want to serve, the streams would need to be
encrypted, and Netflix OTA users would require special hardware to decrypt
them.

What you're essentially proposing is that Netflix should become DirecTV.

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Someone1234
Exactly.

That entire model is outdated anyway. Everything is converging on the
internet: voice calls (WiFi calling, Skype, etc), IM (WhatsApp, Facebook
Messenger), video (YouTube, Netflix, Hulu), radio (Shoutcast, podcasts, etc),
books (Kindle, Apple, Nook), etc.

And people want Netflix to step backwards into a "you'll get the content we
give you" mode that everyone hated? Having TV schedules is a deficit of
traditional broadcasting, not a perk, as even if you like being spoon-fed
programming that could trivially be re-created via on-demand (e.g. smart-
queues, your playlist(s), curated playlists (e.g. your favourite celebrity's
choices), etc).

Plus the infrastructure waste (duplication?) and all for what gain? It would
be more useful to take all that money and invest in making the Netflix apps on
smart TVs able to stream continuously like a TV "channel." Then do what Google
Play Music has gone and add curated "channels" of content (although it is
music in this example, not video).

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rustyconover
Nothing really, but to preserve the experience of Netflix, you'd have to have
on premise equipment cache the broadcast (the actual content) and the library
of films you can watch instantly will be limited to the storage of your
device.

Because the bandwidth purchased by Netflix will be limited and they'll need to
rebroadcast certain content (maybe people's boxes were turned off) they just
won't be able to keep everybody's box in sync all the time. And will be a
worse experience.

I just think it is economically unfeasible for Netflix to purchase enough
bandwidth in enough markets to preserve the same customer experience. To say
nothing of the technological, signal propagation and equipment manufacturing
challenges.

