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Netflix Eats Up 15% of All Internet Downstream Traffic Worldwide, Study Finds (variety.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

When it comes to devouring bandwidth online, no company can hold a candle to Netflix. From a report: Netflix remains the 800-pound gorilla of the streaming world: Video from the service consumes a significant 15% of all internet bandwidth globally, the most of any single application. That's according to the latest Global Internet Phenomena Report from Sandvine, a vendor of bandwidth-management systems. Netflix was followed by HTTP media streams, representing 13.1% of all downstream traffic; YouTube (11.4%); web browsing (7.8%); and MPEG transport streams (4.4%). In the Americas, Netflix grabs an even bigger slice of the bandwidth pie, accounting for 19.1% of total downstream traffic. Here's an interesting wrinkle: In this Americas, Amazon Prime Video consumes more data (7.7% of downstream traffic) than YouTube (7.5%), per Sandvine. During peak evening hours, Netflix usage can spike as high as 40% of all downstream traffic on some wireline operator networks in the Americas, per the study, which remains consistent with past studies Sandvine has conducted. Further reading: File-sharing Site Openload Generates More Traffic Than Hulu or HBO Go, and the source study: Sandvine.

2 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Wrong by sobachatina · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Uh no. The title must have been phrased by the anti net neutrality crowd.

    Actually, Netflix doesn't consume a single byte of downstream traffic. They don't pay for it, they don't consume it.

    ISP customers choose to consume the downstream bandwidth that they already paid for by ordering data from Netflix. If the ISPs can't provide the downstream bandwidth that they have *already sold* to their customers then they should face consequences and not try to double charge and extort other companies.

  2. Re:guess I thought wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    thought it would be pornhub that would eat up most of the bandwidth :-)

    I believe I saw a stat once that the average session at Porn Hub is something like 10 minutes, so that limits the impact somewhat. ;-)

    Hell, the middle 10-12 minutes of most porn scenes just gets tedious and people just fast forward to the money shot anyway, or so I'm told. :-P