Why didn't television channels experience slow down during lockdown when everyone was facing internet slowdown issues?

TV and radios are different from the internet. Now it's true that both the internet and TV can use fixed lines or broadcast towers or satellites but that's where the similarity ends.

The internet is a globally connected network. Efforts are made to distribute the load on the servers by using content delivery networks (CDNs) and edge servers, to provide localized services, but the internet is still a one giant interconnected network.

Because it is connected, bottlenecks for any particular service whether it be a global DNS or a local bank website affects all the users of that service equally.

So for the internet to be fast it has to be fast all through its chain. That is tough.

Moreover the internet is a platform on which the community can actively participate. Meaning the communication is bidirectional.

Now on the other hand if you look at TV or radio they are broadcast services. Communication is unidirectional. You can watch a program but only passively. All of the available bandwidth is used to transmit the channels.

TV and radio broadcast is distributed and localized by default so it only has to serve the users in that area. At best a TV network is LAN. So it has less people to worry about.

"But if more people are watching the TV it should stress the network right ?"

Yes absolutely capacity planning is important in any network. Given the fact that it broadcasts a fixed number of channels (that you watch one at a time), capacity planning is relatively easier.

If you look at DTH satellite broadcasts it is much simpler than the internet. One uplink station beaming the channels to the satellite and then the satellite distributing it to homes. Due to its height (some 30,000 KM up in the sky) satellite signals can cover extremely large distances on the ground.

The dish antenna installed at home comes with an amplifier and noise blocker that prepares the incoming signal for viewing on TV.

And once more since this is a unidirectional broadcast all the people on the network get the same speed as it's broadcasted by the satellite. Therefore the experience is uniform,more or less.

For cable connections things are a bit more complicated. The cable company first receives the data through either the satellite or by cables and then it has to find a way to distribute it to its customers. It'll need to invest in its own multiplexing, amplifying,distribution network.

Some helpful links on the topic for more detailed understanding.

https://www.quora.com/How-are-satellite-TVs-able-to-transfer-so-much-data

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_television

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct-to-home_television_in_India

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