Video-on-demand over satellite

Abstract

In countries where cable infrastructure is lacking, satellite communications is often the preferred alternative to reach the mass market. Interactive video-on-demand requires a large amount of bandwidth per subscriber, making it difficult to scale up to many subscribers in a satellite environment. In this article a method and system for interactive video-on-demand over satellite is proposed and evaluated. The Internet, mobile phone and other communication networks allow the modern business to receive feedback on its products and services more timely and interactively than was traditionally possible. This has lead to the personalisation of websites, marketing campaigns and profiling of users through personalisation techniques such as collaborative filtering. It is shown that by incorporating personalisation into the video-on-demand business model, it becomes possible to grow the number of users independent of the available bandwidth