Content can still be multicasted to the edge caching servers, for near-real-time updates, that you then may visit/view on-demand with your favorite unicast client
Charles
Yep. That gives a hybrid approach that still greatly reduces the load on the ultimate content source. One stream for all. Individual providers could then hold the content for unicast distribution within their net or the broadcast provider could even provide the server collocated at the eyeball network. And as you mention, as people shift to using the Internet for stuff that was traditionally the domain of broadcast traffic anyway, the same broadcast concepts would still apply as being a good means of sending the traffic. It would actually be rather simple with tools that are available right now. Maybe content distribution using UFTP http://www.tcnj.edu/~bush/uftp.html and then unicast to the end user from those systems. But for major events or things like content that is normally a broadcast channel (e.g. cable news), straight multicast all the way to the user is probably best, in my opinion.