Embodiments provide quality of service for media content delivery over capacity-constrained communications links to user devices by exploiting usage models and path awareness. For example, one or more uncongested beams can be identified as preceding one or more congested beams (e.g., by computing a congestion map) along a predicted transport path of a user device moving through a multi-beam satellite communications system. A prediction can be made aps to one or more future requests that are likely to be made by the user device for pre-positionable types of media content, and that are likely to be serviced by one of the subsequent congested beams. When such a request for pre-positionable media content is predicted, embodiments can schedule transmission of at least a portion of the media content over one or more of the preceding uncongested beams for storage local to the user device, thereby pre-positioning the content at the client prior to reaching the congested beam.