ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses videotape and disc distribution, as film distribution to the broadcast industry and to the public has long since faded into history. Live news from overseas or across the country was now possible, both from a distribution and contribution standpoint. Content providers worldwide are combining streaming video with their more traditional content delivery methods. Real-time video delivery of Moving Picture Experts Group content over Internet Protocol networks is only successful if the decoder is able to lock to the program stream via a program clock reference. The television networks also made the switch to Ku-Band satellites in the early 1990s, as the cost of C-Band transponder leasing for ever-increasing program content was also increasing. Williams Network Services was set up in 1990 to provide the switching of private high-bandwidth fiber optic circuits. The intent was to pioneer a multiservice broadband network that would accommodate voice, audio/video, and eventually Internet services.
