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Streaming Video Is 70 Percent of Broadband Use (recode.net)

An anonymous reader writes: Streaming entertainment is now the dominant form of broadband usage in North America. A new report from Sandvine says streaming accounts for roughly 70% of downstream traffic during peak times, and 65% of total traffic. That represents a doubling of video/audio streaming since five years ago. "Much of the increase comes from YouTube and Netflix, which already accounted for more than half of your broadband usage a couple of years ago, and continue to grow. But now those services are joined by relatively new entrants, like Amazon* and Hulu, which barely registered a couple of years ago and now account for nearly 6 percent of usage." Streaming doesn't take up such a big portion of traffic on mobile, but it still takes up more than any other type of traffic. It accounts for about 41% of peak downstream traffic, and 37% overall.

58 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Surprised It's So Low by ranton · · Score: 2

    Considering most other web content is just downloading some text and static pictures, I'm surprised only 70% of downstream traffic at peak times is streaming video. I guess that goes to show how good compression on streaming video is.

    --
    -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    1. Re: Surprised It's So Low by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      What percentage of people watch porn for as long as they watch TV?

    2. Re: Surprised It's So Low by Skinny+Rav · · Score: 1

      Digital software distribution could be big, too. A game purchased on Steam can mean a couple hours of saturated broadband.

    3. Re:Surprised It's So Low by pipedwho · · Score: 3, Informative

      And where does bittorrent factor into all of this?

      That last 30% has to be distributed amongst all the other traditional high bandwidth users: porn, torrents, and massive software updates/downloads.

    4. Re: Surprised It's So Low by Trepidity · · Score: 1

      Automatic updates to software too. Windows, OSX, and friends regularly pull down big updates. So do game consoles, Android and iOS apps, etc.

    5. Re:Surprised It's So Low by SeaFox · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's a very good point.

      Weren't the RIAA/MPAA just telling us last year how the majority of Internet traffic was people torrenting (and assumedly pirating media)?

      Now the figures say the fast amount of usage is people consuming media legally. Guess pirating isn't the big problem they said it was.

    6. Re:Surprised It's So Low by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

      Guess pirating isn't the big problem they said it was.

      And everybody in the world except anybody not an RIAA/MPAA lawyer was shocked to hear this.

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    7. Re:Surprised It's So Low by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's a very good point.

      Weren't the RIAA/MPAA just telling us last year how the majority of Internet traffic was people torrenting (and assumedly pirating media)?

      Now the figures say the fast amount of usage is people consuming media legally. Guess pirating isn't the big problem they said it was.

      Well, that was a few years ago. In the meantime, a bunch of legit streaming services popped up - Netflix, Hulu, HBO, etc. etc. etc.

      In fact, over the past 5 or so years, the amount of traffic Netflix consumes has grown and overtaken BitTorrent as the main downstream traffic (BitTorrent is still king on upstream). The only time Netflix is dethroned are the few days Apple releases a massive update (OS X or iOS) and pretty much overwhelms the Internet for a couple of days.

      Basically, what has happened was we proved the assertion that people mostly pirate because they can't get what they want legally. Well, the rise of iTunes and other music retailers, digital downloads of TV shows and movies, streaming services like Netflix and HBO, music streaming services, pretty much goes to show that really, a good chunk of piracy was caused by the lack of legal options. (Heck, we knew iTunes did that - would people pirate music or would they buy it? The rise of iTunes' supremacy in selling music showed if you give them a consistent high quality source with little money, people will buy it over free).

      Hell, even YouTube's got decent quality content up there as well.

      Now if the rest of the world would get off their ass, look what happened in the US, and follow suit with providing legal services.

      And yes, the remaining 30% is mostly BitTorrent. But that's a huge shift from when BitTorrent was the massive user of bandwidth by far.

    8. Re: Surprised It's So Low by grumbel · · Score: 1

      Not that big, you only download a 50GB game from Steam like once a month, probably a lot less. HD streaming on the other side you can have running for hours each day (average American watches like 4h TV a day).

    9. Re:Surprised It's So Low by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Many years ago I used to rip movies and download stuff from... sites...

      Until cheap streaming came out... Between Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, etc. there is no longer a reason to pirate anything...

      Offer a reasonable product for a reasonable price and people will pay, including me...

      It really isn't rocket science...

    10. Re:Surprised It's So Low by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Between Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, etc. there is no longer a reason to pirate anything...

      Except in cases like this

    11. Re:Surprised It's So Low by Narcocide · · Score: 1

      You forgot about SPAM.

    12. Re:Surprised It's So Low by Narcocide · · Score: 2

      The MPAA counts Netflix as piracy.

    13. Re: Surprised It's So Low by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Who says it isn't streaming porn?

    14. Re:Surprised It's So Low by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      I have to be careful not to mix metaphors here, but the elephant in the room is porn... I'm told there are now loads of porn streaming sites, and much of the content is pirate. I sort of wonder if that has always been the case, since the BBS days.

      Asking for a friend etc.

      --
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      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    15. Re: Surprised It's So Low by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      The guys who are either really good or really bad.

      While I expect porn may be the most popular category in terms of number of people. It's viewership per individual is for a short burst during a period of time.

      Once they are done people will go to more "wholesome" activities. While we are sexual animals, we are more than purely sex all the time. After the cravings have been relieved other higher human functions kick in.

      Just as we are not constantly eating or thinking about eating.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    16. Re:Surprised It's So Low by phil.swansborough · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes, no reason at all... Except the constant removal of your favourite shows. Or things never turn up in your country because, you know, agreements and stuff. Or not being able to watch where you want because of bandwidth issues. Piracy is still the number 1 user friendly service, you get all the stuff as soon as it's out and no-one can take it away on a whim or because a new deal wasn't cut.

    17. Re:Surprised It's So Low by BlackHawk-666 · · Score: 1

      And for those reasons I still torrent a bunch of stuff and store it on my drives, even though I pay for a Netflix subscription and some of the stuff I torrent is actually on Netflix in my country. I honestly don't mind paying a decent fee / month to be able to watch a wide range of shows, but this bullshit over regional availability and then removing shows you like has to stop.

      It would also be nice if Netflix would stop being a dick to my bandwidth and give me H265 content at reasonable bitrates, since the equipment I am using to watch it on is all capable of playing back this format and the savings in bandwidth can be tremendous.

      Netflix is doing good, so they get my money, even though I literally only watch 1-2 shows / episodes a month on the streaming service. I want to encourage this sort of disruption, and cash is the best encouragement of all.

      --
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    18. Re:Surprised It's So Low by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes, there is a reason: All of those sites give money to the MAFIAA (Music And Film Industry Associations of America). These companies use the money they earn and the influence it gives them to have the legislative enact laws which cripple freedom on the internet and make mandatory technological inhibitions which turn our own devices against us. By giving money to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, etc. instead of pirating or abstaining, you support the erosion of our freedoms.

    19. Re: Surprised It's So Low by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      Where are you people living? I'm getting 100Mbps fiber in Bangalore.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    20. Re:Surprised It's So Low by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      Yep, and now the internet companies who had basically been saying anyone who really uses their broadband is a "dirty pirate" are going to have to seriously look at their infrastructure. People are actually USING all that pipe.

      I think that rather than complaining about "heavy users", ISP's really should count them as a blessing. Consider it market research - whatever usage you perceive to be "excessive" now will be the norm in 5-7 more years. Build out your network accordingly.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    21. Re:Surprised It's So Low by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      Except that for something like Netflix, I know and understand that I'm basically paying a renting/streaming service and I'm not buying the TV shows and movies.

      What would help is if Netflix could get off their arses and implement all the ideas I've sent them. One of them is adding a coloured corner on the posters to tell us that a TV show/movie will be removed soon with green, yellow and red corners to further indicate how much time is left. Red = less than 90 days left, yellow = less than 30 days left, red = only 7 days left or less.

    22. Re: Surprised It's So Low by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I wonder how much of this is actively watched. I suspect, excluding my ISO torrents, I stream at least that much but it's on in the background and streams documentaries as I go to sleep or while I'm sleeping.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    23. Re:Surprised It's So Low by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      I like netflix since the subtitles are always there, it remembers where I was across multiple devices, and I use a vpn to grab content from wherever they have it available.

    24. Re:Surprised It's So Low by pnutjam · · Score: 2

      True, but it can often be near impossible to find less popular stuff as torrents also.

    25. Re:Surprised It's So Low by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      Those are fair and reasonable points...

      All I can say is that there is more legal content than I can ever consume in a lifetime, and at some point my time and energy are better spent elsewhere...

      Downloading stuff via bittorrent takes times, storing it and finding it takes time and money, and at some point you just tire of it.

      It is also worth noting that via Amazon, you can buy many shows/movies via Amazon Video and then you own them forever. Even if they no longer sell new copies (which does happen sometimes), you always can watch your existing shows.

      So "free" via Prime/Netflix, yes those come and go. Purchased items are forever.

    26. Re: Surprised It's So Low by Jax+Omen · · Score: 1

      the City of Seattle is worse-than-third-world for it's internet. Literally the only options are dialup, ISDN, Cellular, and sometimes Satellite (assuming you have a place to install a dish).

      Which is insane since all of the surrounding cities (Kirkland, Bellevue, Renton, Everett, and all the other cities that make up the "Seattle Metropolitan Area") have readily-available cable, mostly from Comcast, with at least a 100mbps tier available.

      Your best course of action is to move the fuck out of the City of Seattle.

    27. Re: Surprised It's So Low by tepples · · Score: 1

      Seattle, Washington, has outdated wiring plus excessive red tape for access to rights of way.

  2. Well thank goodness we have put an end to porno by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Apparently it dosent take any bandwidth at all its all just youtube netflix and hulu.

  3. All steaming video? by burtosis · · Score: 2

    How much of this is actually just video advertisements? Without ad blocking software on im just spammed with video on every page. Moreover you have to sit through advertisements on many of the popular streaming services. I would be interested to know the total bandwidth involved as a percentage of total bandwidth.

  4. What did you expect. by deviated_prevert · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Ever since Microsoft hatched windows vista and then proceeded to to screw over everybody with windows 8 and now the biggest " all your files are belong to us " release of windows 10 that screws over 7 with an automatic update. I am surprised this time they didn't hire the Stones to re release one of their songs and change the lyric from HEY HEY YOU YOU to Hey Hey who you you get onto our cloud. Like a scene from a rock and roll horror picture with a zombie geriatric rock band suddenly comes back to change history. I keenly remember having to use trumpet winsock to even get a dial up connection to work because Microsoft was to desparate to write their own stack for the net and realized that they would have to dominate the net as well as businesses to expand their empire. NOW we have a pile of zombie users watching of every crap movie they can watch on their Microshaft or to a lesser extent Crapple toy computer. Add all that to cell phones watching shit on the net regardless of whether it is LTE, 3g wifi at Barfucks or whatever and you have a recipe for internet chaos.

    Today Shaw internet went out on Vancouver Island for the longest period of time I have ever seen it down. I am willing to bet it was not a hack or a fiber optic problem that took down Shaw today. If we continue to use the net for entertainment purposes then it is obvious that the infrastructure will by necessity will need updating. Like our highway systems and everybody in a car there are going to be major traffic problems that will cost us billions in lost time waiting to get things done stuck on the internet or on the freeway.

    The bandwith problems are not coming from slashdotting the way it happened once upon a time in the good old day. And they are certainly not coming from me downloading torrent isos of bsd and linux, my son in law downloads over 200 gig a month in movies I rarely get over 4 gig a month use out of shaw and that is with all of our household network use including my wifes work, my music uploads and downloads and my audio work. So yes it is movies and streaming entertainment that is causing the pipes to plug. Trouble is the plumbers at microsoft and crapple are hard at it putting in bigger pipes so the shit shows can stream everywhere and your toilet is now in your living room and real computers are in the bathroom going for a shit!

    --
    This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
    1. Re:What did you expect. by DanJ_UK · · Score: 2, Funny

      You need to drink less caffeine.

      --
      - Dan
    2. Re:What did you expect. by deviated_prevert · · Score: 1

      You need to drink less caffeine.

      Read my next post please it explains exactly why I am a little pissed at having my connection blacked out. I suspect that the internet infrastructure in BC is going to need a major rework because of streaming crap on the net. It just cost me half a work day when the net went down and perhaps a sale.

      --
      This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
    3. Re:What did you expect. by mwvdlee · · Score: 2

      You forgot to write "Microsoft" as "Micro$oft".

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  5. Re:More traffic shaping needed now! by Falos · · Score: 1

    Sounds highminded, though I'm not completely unsympathetic...

  6. Bandwith jam up might be what happened today? by deviated_prevert · · Score: 1
    My previous post was a rant because I was in the middle of installing windows and linux as an audio server for a client when this happened. Now I have to start the windows configuration all over before I put in the Linux drive and reconfigure grub to dual boot both drives, A royal pain in the ass because I was in the middle of activating the windows OEM and now I have to phone Microshaft again GRRRRRRR

    The lie is Shaw was down for more than just two hours we did not get our node on the hub back until just and hour ago at about 9 pm pacific! The story but only part of the problem! They are still having trouble all over the place and their business customers are in a blue funk to say the least!

    --
    This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
    1. Re:Bandwith jam up might be what happened today? by deviated_prevert · · Score: 1

      It's likely a physical problem happened (i.e. tree fell on a line) and there is no redundancy in the network. Comcast has a lack of redundancy as well.

      If you want redundancy, multihome by getting a separate ISP on another provider. If you want an AT&T lineman to give you a cussing, install ISDN. It still exists and is the best thing for remote desktop I've seen. Latency as low as 16ms isn't bad at all. A better solution would be to use a local WISP as your backup. If a tree falls, service improves.

      Thanks for that suggestion latency is not an issue except for the times I when I communicate directly over the net. A net outage while I am setting up a DAW is a royal pain in the ass to say the least.

      --
      This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
  7. Illegal downloads by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This conclusion does not match with the extensive research of the movie industry that they are losing billions on illegal downloads of movies. Unless... as 70% is considered legal streaming they must be making twice the money on streaming than they lose on illegal downloads.

    1. Re:Illegal downloads by yes-but-no · · Score: 1

      Internet is a threat to movie-industry; say about 20 years ago, the cost to rent a movie or buy a DVD was high [relative to say a dinner price]. Today netflix/youtube are cheap because the market forces forced them to be so. Else people will go for pirated content. movie-industry was making huge profit from selling DVDs/blu-rays for a very high price; now with new sources of video content on internet, people no longer spend that much to movie-industry. They some how tried to limit the competition; but failed. [Similar to how SMS revenue fell when apps like whatsapp came over]

    2. Re:Illegal downloads by Kjella · · Score: 2

      You're making the false assumption that all content is worth the same. I could put up an hour of me being a goofball on YouTube and be happy to be legally streamed for fifty bucks of ad revenue, while HBO might be slightly annoyed if that's all an episode of Game of Thrones grossed. It's a bit like measuring shoplifting by weight when people steal diamonds and pay for groceries.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    3. Re:Illegal downloads by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      That may be, but those diamonds won't hug you back and kiss you good night.

    4. Re:Illegal downloads by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      Oh wait, did you say groceries? Carry on, then.

  8. Our worst fears are realised by hughbar · · Score: 1

    The intertubes has become the haunted goldfish bowl. Personally, I think we should 'leave' port 80/443 and start somewhere else, but how long before that gets filled up with pictures of cats and Donald Trump too? Oh, despair...

    --
    On y va, qui mal y pense!
  9. Quadruple everyone's bandwidth. by tlambert · · Score: 1

    Quadruple everyone's bandwidth. It will drop from 70% to 70% / 4 ...or just 17.5%.

    Problem solved!

    1. Re:Quadruple everyone's bandwidth. by BlackHawk-666 · · Score: 1

      "The OS will expand to consume all the machine's resources"..only, for the internet. People will just watch more video.

      --
      All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
  10. What? Throttle those bandwidth hogs! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    File sharing protocols are throttled while the real bandwidth hogs, the streaming couch potatoes, drive up the network costs that we all pay. Peak demand defines the required network capacity! I say stop the injustice! Stop making us subsidize streaming with our off-peak usage!

    1. Re:What? Throttle those bandwidth hogs! by tepples · · Score: 1

      I say run the meter when the connection is congested and stop running it when it's underutilized. That's what satellite does, with cap-free early mornings.

  11. Hulu by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 1

    It would be even higher if for-pay Hulu didn't still have commercials in the shows. Once I read that, I didn't even consider getting it. I watched all (well, still maddeningly waiting for the last half) of Mad Men on Netflix; I can't imagine bothering to watch even a show about advertising that is interrupted by advertising.

    1. Re:Hulu by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      Hulu does have an option to remove all commercials. It about doubles the monthly cost, but it is there.

  12. Crackle by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

    Have you guys tried Crackle? Because I have and even though it's free I absolutely hate it. There's ads. Okay, that's the price of free I suppose, but the problem is with the ads themselves:

    1. The ads will cut the TV show or movie without warning, right in the middle of a scene. It's like the ads are on a fixed timer instead of knowing where they can be played. Whoever thought this was a good idea is a complete idiot. Strike one.

    2. There's only half a handful of ads that play over and over. Last time I tried Crackle, there was only three ads during the movie. I'm not saying I watched three ads, I'm saying I watched something like 12 or 15 ads but it was always the same three. What kind of moron thinks showing the same ads multiple times will make us want to buy the products? It has the opposite effect on me. I hate the products shown in the ads because I'm annoyed at seeing the same crap ads multiple times. Strike two.

    3. Most of the time there's so few different ads to be played that they'll stream the same ad twice during a block of ads. As if seeing the same two or three ads multiple times wasn't annoying enough! Strike three!

    Until they fix these issues, I won't be using Crackle. Only business suits can make stupid decisions that will drive people away from something free.

    1. Re:Crackle by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      It still doesn't explain the poor timing of those ads though. If they could at least fix that first, it would be a lot less annoying.

  13. Re:It beats SPAM and p0rn? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1
  14. Oatmeal then, HBO Now by tepples · · Score: 1

    The issue expressed in the comic to which you refer has since been addressed through the HBO Now service.

  15. "Start Me Up" and now this by tepples · · Score: 1

    A "get onto our cloud" jingle sounds plausible given the music choice Microsoft made for the Windows 95 ad campaign two decades ago. It makes a grown man cry.

  16. Keep circulating the tapes by tepples · · Score: 1

    Between Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, etc. there is no longer a reason to pirate anything

    Anything? Let me know when the film Song of the South, the film Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, or the TV series Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea becomes lawfully available in the United States on streaming or even on DVD.

    1. Re:Keep circulating the tapes by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      Fair enough, I concede those items.

      Of course, if they aren't for sale and aren't likely to be for sale anytime soon, then is it really piracy to copy them?

      I would submit there is room in copyright for abandoned works to move to public domain.

  17. Oh Internet tried to kill the metal by tepples · · Score: 1

    Oh, Internet. What has happened to you?

    Oh Internet tried to kill Encyclopædia Dramatica, but it failed as it was stricken down to the ground.

  18. Re:Lets Remember who Sandvine is... by kokoko1 · · Score: 1

    According to my research (internet) Sandvine is the leader in DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) market space.

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