A new dominant layer has appeared in the network since the 2000s, which is the layer of the “over-the-top platform”: for example, the social media Facebook, or the search engine Google, which is the way to access content.
Such enterprises, lacking their own telecommunications network infrastructure, act above the physical networks, hence the definition Over-The-Top. The advantage of OTTs is that they do not bear the costs related to the transmission and operation of the physical network (as with telephony, traditional television via digital terrestrial and via digital satellite), which other broadcasters or telecom operators typically incur by having to lay cables, install repeaters or send satellites into space. Over-The-Top companies can leverage their applications (e.g., Youtube, Instagram, Google Maps, WhatsApp…) in the global market with very low overhead and organic expenses. Over-The-Top platforms have become the media and channel through which we can access content. But within these platforms we cannot easily create forms of organizing hierarchy between the quality of sources and the content itself.
Italiano