Why the next generation of video is physically impossible with unicast delivery
The Promise They Can’t Keep
Every year at CES, TV manufacturers unveil stunning 8K displays. Samsung, LG, Sony—they all promise breathtaking clarity, four times the resolution of 4K, sixteen times the pixels of 1080p.
The marketing is beautiful. The demos are jaw-dropping. And there’s just one problem:
There’s no way to actually deliver 8K content to your home at scale.
The Bandwidth Reality Check
| Resolution | Typical Bitrate | Data per Hour |
|---|---|---|
| 720p HD | 4 Mbps | 1.8 GB |
| 1080p Full HD | 8 Mbps | 3.6 GB |
| 4K UHD | 25 Mbps | 11.3 GB |
| 8K UHD | 80-100 Mbps | 36-45 GB |
8K requires 10x the bandwidth of current HD streaming.
The Math at Scale
For 1 million concurrent 8K viewers:
1,000,000 viewers × 80 Mbps = 80 Tbps
Current global internet backbone: ~500-1000 Tbps total. A single 8K live event with 1 million viewers would consume 8-16% of the entire internet’s capacity.
The Jake Paul vs. Tyson fight had 65 million viewers. At 8K? That would require 5,200 Tbps—five times more bandwidth than the entire internet has.
The CDN Cost Apocalypse
For 1 million viewer-hours at 8K:
- Data transferred: 45 PB (petabytes)
- CDN cost at $0.03/GB: $1,350,000
A 3-hour sports event for 10M viewers = $40 million in delivery costs alone. No business model survives those economics.
Why “The Internet Will Improve” Is Wrong
CDN price decline has stalled:
- 1995-2015: Bandwidth costs dropped 99%
- 2015-2020: Costs dropped ~20%
- 2020-2025: Costs essentially flat
Per CacheFly’s analysis, we may see price increases in 2025-2026 for the first time ever.
And Then There’s VR
| Format | Required Bitrate |
|---|---|
| VR 180° | 100-150 Mbps |
| VR 360° | 150-250 Mbps |
| Volumetric Video | 500+ Mbps |
| Light Field | 1+ Gbps |
Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest—these devices preview a future where video isn’t flat. But that future requires bandwidth we simply don’t have.
What Actually Works: Multicast
Multicast delivery doesn’t have these limitations:
| Metric | Unicast 8K (1M viewers) | Multicast 8K (1M viewers) |
|---|---|---|
| Bandwidth | 80 Tbps | 80 Mbps |
| Cost | $1.35M/hour | ~$200/hour |
| Feasibility | Impossible | Works today |
With multicast: 8K requires the same infrastructure as 4K. VR scales identically. Future formats are automatically supported. Costs don’t change with resolution.
The Future Is Multicast or Nothing
Path A: Continue with unicast
- 4K remains the ceiling
- 8K stays a showroom demo
- VR remains a niche
Path B: Embrace multicast
- 8K becomes viable
- VR scales to mainstream
- Video finally fulfills its potential
There is no Path C. The physics don’t allow it.
Sending the same bits millions of times was always a hack. True broadcasting is the only answer.