The 8008 was: Blinky lights WAS: The SR71 Blackbird was designed ENTIRELYwith slide rules 652

I've only seen such things available as pay-per-view. There are simply not enough channels available (at a reasonable cost) to provide one to every user in a given cable cell. Intelligent networks with dumb edges don't scale well.

It makes more sense to move the storage logic into a STB, particularly given the plummetting cost of storage. For on-demand or unpopular content, they can push the show down to the STB at faster-than-realtime speeds, and the user can pause, fast-forward, and rewind as desired. Popular shows could be multicast encrypted to all interested STBs ahead of time, with the key sent out at airtime. Live content would be multicast realtime and stored TiVo-style if the user paused it. This leads to a system where network operators could pay per viewing instead of per airing (probably putting Nielsen out of business). It also allows network technology independence, and perhaps studios would be able to distribute content directly to viewers instead of needing TV "networks" in the first place -- all you need is a sufficiently fast Internet pipe into the home.

Alas, the media conglomerates are more interested in how they can use new technology to improve revenue on ancient business models than how they can generate more revenue by creating new business models.

S

-- Stephen Sprunk "Those people who think they know everything CCIE #3723 are a great annoyance to those of us who do." K5SSS --Isaac Asimov