Advanced Television

Report: Netflix efficiencies reduce traffic load

June 23, 2016

The latest Global Internet Phenomena Report from intelligent broadband network solutions provider Sandvine suggests that efforts by Netflix to compress its video library have led to a decline in traffic on North American fixed networks, lower data consumption for subscribers, and decreased capacity-related costs for operators.

Netflix represented 35.2 per cent of traffic on North America fixed networks. While this was a modest decline from the 37.1 per cent of traffic it represented six months ago, this change is likely the result of improvements by Netflix better to compress its video library. Even with these improvements in streaming efficiency, Netflix’s traffic share on fixed networks in Latin America increased from 6.6 per cent to 8.3 per cent.

Other report highlights include:

  • Amazon Video is now the third ranked downstream application (up from eighth a year ago) in North America, accounting for 4.3 per cent of fixed traffic. Sling TV now appears among the top 20 applications on most US networks, but still accounts for less than 1 per cent of traffic.
  • Streaming audio and video now accounts for 71 per cent of evening traffic in North American fixed access networks. Sandvine expects this figure will reach 80 per cent by 2020.
  • Cloud Storage (Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive, etc.) has surpassed Filesharing as the largest source of upstream traffic during peak period on North American fixed access networks. BitTorrent now accounts for less than 5 per cent of total daily traffic in the region.
  • The addition of video and voice calling is driving growth in Communications apps on mobile networks in both Latin America and North America. In Latin America, WhatsApp traffic share is now 7.4 per cent, more than triple what it was two years ago.
  • In Latin America, Facebook and Google account for over 70 per cent of total mobile traffic in the region, this is up from 60 per cent reported last year.
  • Over 60 per cent of mobile traffic in both Latin America and North America is now encrypted and Sandvine predicts some networks will surpass 80 per cent this year.

“Netflix’s decision to optimise their entire video library will yield benefits for both subscribers and operators,” said Dave Caputo, CEO, Sandvine. “Netflix’s optimisations mean they can deliver more hours of video using less bandwidth, which results in lower data consumption for subscribers, and decreased capacity-related costs for operators.”

 

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