Systems and methods are described herein for transmitting a content item to a user device using multiple delivery protocols. The system receives, at a content source, a request for the content item from the user device. The system splits a digital stream of the content item into a first video signal and a second video signal. The system then transmits, via a unicast server, the first video signal for the content item to the user device, and transmits, via a multicast server, the second video signal for the content item to the user device. The system then causes for presentation on the user device the first video signal followed by the second video signal. In other embodiments, the system is optimized between the unicast delivery of a content item and a peer-to-peer delivery.