Streaming Video Is 70 Percent of Broadband Use (recode.net) 89
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.
Surprised It's So Low (Score:3)
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.
Re: Surprised It's So Low (Score:3, Funny)
What percentage of people watch porn for as long as they watch TV?
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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.
Re: Surprised It's So Low (Score:2, Funny)
Who says it isn't streaming porn?
Re: Surprised It's So Low (Score:2)
Digital software distribution could be big, too. A game purchased on Steam can mean a couple hours of saturated broadband.
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Automatic updates to software too. Windows, OSX, and friends regularly pull down big updates. So do game consoles, Android and iOS apps, etc.
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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).
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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.
Re:Surprised It's So Low (Score:4, 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.
Re:Surprised It's So Low (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.
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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.
Re:Surprised It's So Low (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Surprised It's So Low (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...
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Between Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, etc. there is no longer a reason to pirate anything...
Except in cases like this [theoatmeal.com]
Oatmeal then, HBO Now (Score:2)
The issue expressed in the comic to which you refer has since been addressed through the HBO Now service.
Re:Surprised It's So Low (Score:5, Interesting)
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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
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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
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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 sometime
Hulu (Score:2)
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Hulu does have an option to remove all commercials. It about doubles the monthly cost, but it is there.
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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.
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Keep circulating the tapes (Score:2)
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.
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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.
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The MPAA counts Netflix as piracy.
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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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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.
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You forgot about SPAM.
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Where are you people living? I'm getting 100Mbps fiber in Bangalore.
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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 Seatt
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Seattle, Washington, has outdated wiring plus excessive red tape for access to rights of way.
Well thank goodness we have put an end to porno (Score:1)
All steaming video? (Score:3)
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What did you expect. (Score:2, Interesting)
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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.
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You forgot to write "Microsoft" as "Micro$oft".
"Start Me Up" and now this (Score:2)
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.
Bandwith jam up might be what happened today? (Score:1)
The lie is Shaw was down for more than just two hours we did not get our node on the hub back until just an
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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.
Illegal downloads (Score:4, 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.
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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.
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That may be, but those diamonds won't hug you back and kiss you good night.
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Oh wait, did you say groceries? Carry on, then.
Our worst fears are realised (Score:2)
Quadruple everyone's bandwidth. (Score:2)
Quadruple everyone's bandwidth. It will drop from 70% to 70% / 4 ...or just 17.5%.
Problem solved!
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"The OS will expand to consume all the machine's resources"..only, for the internet. People will just watch more video.
What? Throttle those bandwidth hogs! (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!
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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.
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You could always combine spam and video streaming. [youtube.com]
Oh Internet tried to kill the metal (Score:2)
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 [encyclopediadramatica.se].
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Crackle (Score:2)
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 trie
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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.