Is it bandwidth or storage that really matters?
There have been a number of recent debates/discussions about the viability of full IP-based, download or stream based delivery of video that reaches consumer televisions. There’s clearly enormous momentum and energy behind leveraging the open Internet, commodity bandwidth, etc. to deliver media. Two key industry insiders — Mark Cuban, founder of Broadcast.com and HDNet, and James Murdoch, current CEO of Sky in the UK — have advocated that storage trumps bandwidth in the delivered media world.
At the core of this belief is an underlying belief in the importance of high-definition (HD) video media, which on a raw storage and bandwidth basis consumes an enormous amount. The argument is that a) given that consumers want high-quality media, and b) that storage is getting cheaper than bandwidth, that storage will trump bandwidth as the vehicle for content.
I question the first and core assumption….
An excellent debate. More here.