Netflix Accounts for an Impressive 33% of Peak Internet Traffic Across North America

By: Talha Bhatti  |   November 8th, 2012   |   Business, News, O Canada

A report from Sandvine, an internet traffic-management systems developer, states that popular streaming video site Netflix uses up one-third of all peak internet traffic in North America. This is not the only intriguing piece of data from the research study and more insights include the claim that internet data usage on wireless networks has double in just one year. The Sandvine report was developed in one month using traffic data collected from 200 customers from around the world. The company claims that the sample adequately represents global internet usage.

 

The Sandvine report says that Netflix users suck in 33 percent of all downstream traffic in the North American region from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. Other major internet player like Amazon and Hulu use up 1.8 percent and 1.4 percent of downstream traffic respectively and are no where close to the footprint of NetFlix.

 

NetFlix’s heavy toll is also apparent from the report data that shows 65 percent of all fixed-line data traffic during peak hours in North America come from audio or video-streaming services. That means that Netflix is responsible for over 50% of that traffic. The report also shows that overall data usage on wireless networks went from 23GB in 2012 to 51GB in 2013.

 

The report is good news for Netflix and shows the company has dominated its sector. In 2010, Netflix gobbled up 20 percent of all downstream traffic during peak times but by 2011 the company was hogging 30 percent of the traffic. The creators of the report expect Netflix to keep growing and eating up internet traffic. Sandvine states that NetFlix will generate “two times the bandwidth of YouTube and 10 times that of competing services” by 2015. The report also forecasts the the most streamed event in Internet history will the upcoming 2014 World Cup.

 

Source: CNET