system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How does a computer network like HBO's handle the massive output of data for short bursts of time, like a GoT episode?

HBO but have to stream massive amounts of data for about an hour when the episode is first up followed by a percipitous drop-off in usage. Would they have to build a network with the capacity of Netflix just to have this capacity for a few hours a year? Generally how do massive amounts of data get transferred from one source over shortly periods?
gpt
Content Delivery Networks (CDN).  Multiple servers around the country cache the content, closest geographical or fastest is the one that serves you so not everyone is pulling from the same server.  It's not hard to forecast bandwidth usage since it is just simple data and in general most CDNs are not run near capacity so there is room for these spikes.