Minimizing number of hops between locations

We are running video streams from Washington DC to NY. We’re looking to optimize the path as must as possible and in order to reduce latency, we want to reduce the number of hops.

In my opinion the best way to do this would be to purchase an Ethernet private line from a provider who has service at both offices (NY and DC). Obviously this would also be the most costly as well.

In your experience, if we purchase dedicated internet access from the same provider in both locations, will the traffic stay on that provider’s network the whole way? Or will traffic hop onto the internet (and therefore other ISPs) at some point in order to make it to NY?

Is there any way to optimize the route traffic takes across the internet?

And finally, (related but unrelated question) how much faster are AWS’s and other cloud provider backbones compared to internet connection between two locations? I’m sure some of you have some real world experiences here.

Thanks!