KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — The military is exploring streaming television on the Internet to give overseas troops and civilians a Netflix-like video-on-demand service laced with commercials aimed at the military.
Armed Forces Radio and Television Service said in a solicitation on its website in August that it’s seeking contractors “to determine the feasibility of delivering video on demand and/or live video streaming” over Internet protocol to the overseas U.S. military community.
Such a service could come in any of a variety of flavors, a couple of which AFRTS spitballs in the solicitation.
One option would deliver content similar to AFN’s existing lineup, some of it on demand, some of it live.
The other model would have the service provider deliver programming from all major commercial networks, premium cable and movies from all major U.S. studios. Viewers would have on-demand access to the current and previous three seasons’ worth of episodes, as well as live sports.
In other words, the future of AFN might look a bit like the love child of Netflix and the NFL’s Sunday Ticket – save the commercials.
“Any VOD or Live Streaming programming would require that all commercials be removed and replaced with Department of Defense messages, news breaks, or spots,” AFRTS said in its solicitation.
It’s not coming our way anytime soon, though. AFRTS has yet to request any funding for the project, according to an AFN spokesman.
