What is switched digital video (SDV)?

In the past, this practice has worked a-okay since each additional analog or digital SD channel only required a small amount of extra bandwidth; now, however, customers are demanding more and more HD programming, and as you can likely glean, these newfangled HD channels require quite a bit more bandwidth to deliver. Given the alternative of ripping up existing networks and replacing them with higher-speed alternatives (read: no way that’s happening), cable providers got smart and conjured up the idea of using switched digital video.