Reducing network bandwidth consumption using generically encoded media objects

Abstract

Described herein are ways to advantageously reduce bandwidth use between an internet service provider and its subscribers by re-encoding media objects to have a generic encoding that can be cached at subscriber devices. When a subscriber makes an authorized request for a media object from a content provider, a cached version of the generically encoded media object may be played by the subscriber even if the subscriber is not a customer of the content provider that originally provided the media object. This can eliminate the need for streaming a new copy of the media object from the content provider. The disclosed systems are configured to identify when differently-encoded media objects represent the same media object so that subscribers can play cached media objects rather than requiring each media object be streamed from different content providers.