In recent years I’ve been a little bit jealous of our American neighbors when it comes to the range of options they have to access high quality video content. But with the recent announcement that Netflix will be expanding into the Great White North, I can feel a little better.

The idea of getting unlimited streaming movies for something that might be around $10/month is pretty appealing. And with more and more TV & compatible devices (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, etc) with Netflix support, I think this kind of service will have genuine mainstream appeal. No longer will folks have to mess with wires to connect their PC to their TV!

I do have a few concerns about these types of services. I can’t be watching a movie in the living room with my wife and have the movie break-up and begin buffering because there is congestion on the network. In order for services like these to satisfy mainstream customer expectations, the quality of experience should be consistently excellent. High-quality large format TVs are very good at highlighting the difference between high quality and low quality video.

The reality is that streaming video is perhaps the most demanding consumer application in terms of broadband network resources. As such, it demands intelligent and efficient network management; network management that is sensitive to and aware of the specific requirements of various applications. A consumer’s sensitivity to a video buffering mid way through an action scene is very high. Their sensitivity towards a bulk file transfer taking 10 seconds longer is very low. Network operators with visibility to and understanding of the broad range of applications that traverse their network are in the best position to satisfy the growing demands for high quality real-time broadband entertainment.