[mixmastamyk]

Not at BR quality. Well, it may be fast enough in sections, but it isn't economical to send out thousands of BR quality streams, so they don't.

Newer codecs help with that, yes. However, streaming will not be as high quality as a "station wagon full of tapes" i.e. local, in the near future.

[loeg]

Easily at BR quality with a high speed connection — it's only 20-30 mbps — but as you say, consumers don't care enough to pay what it would cost to stream at higher bitrates.