This method works well for improving quality, but it's expensive because the cost of managing servers in multiple locations is passed on to you, the client. Unpopular clips are dropped from the cache servers to make room for more frequently played content. If your media files won't generate 100,000 requests daily, you're probably not going to reap the benefits of a distributed network deploying cache servers. For live streaming and small archives with a high number of hits, this is a great option. For larger archives with low hit counts, performance might be lower than promised due to cache servers having to request copies of the media file from the server of origin.
Load balancing is another method service providers use to stream media across multiple servers.
Because the load balancer distributes viewer demand among multiple servers, the greatest advantage of this technology is maximum uptime and maximum data throughput. If a server fails, the load balancer detects the failure and routes requests to other servers. Dynamic routing services prevent network congestion and improve streaming quality by attempting to find the optimal route between the server where the media file is stored and the end user. Distributed networks and some nondistributed networks offer this service. Nondistributed networks might use this method to stream from a single location on the Internet to greatly reduce cost for the client.