In the not too distant past, linear and VOD streaming was serviced by good old UDP-based protocols such as RTP. These delivered content to a relatively small and non-diverse population of audiences and clients. As habits, problems and opportunities shifted, the industry embraced HTTP-based streaming for delivery of over-the-top services. These were great because they “just worked”, piggybacking on existing infrastructure and the web platform. HTTP isn’t perfect but the technology fitted the need of the day. In the world of Internet protocols a different set of challenges led HTTP on the reverse path from TCP to UDP. QUIC, a new always secure transport protocol based on UDP. It is in the final stages of standardization at the IETF and will be released alongside HTTP/3, which takes HTTP/2’s binary syntax and tweaks a few things. This sounds exciting and bold but in reality is just a variant of what Google has been using for YouTube for years. HTTP/3 for video streaming may improve performance or quality of experience for some consumers. However, this is yet another option among a wardrobe stuffed with them; time will tell how feasible it is for operators to realise this variant of delivery. So is that the end of the story? Are we there and back again with UDP? I put it to you that we aren’t, yet. HTTP is practical but unambitious. As the industry gains more maturity it is butting up against its limits. As consumer habits change and their expectations grow we begin to hit the limit of HTTP’s technical capability to offer new and exciting experiences without horrible hacks or layers upon layers of technical debt. This talk will explain some of the capabilities of QUIC and explore the great blue yonder that can open up. By returning to our roots of “just a transport”, we can realise lower-latency, better scalability and more interesting use cases. We’ll touch on the seeds that are germinating today and highlight the gaps or pitfalls that need to be overcome to make these hopes a reality. Presented at Demuxed 2019 in San Francisc