Broken Secrets

Netflix Accounts for 29% of North American Internet Traffic

May 8, 2013 at 2:00 am Chad Upton 2 comments

By Chad Upton | Editor

YouTube was once the king of online video bandwidth. They still make a significant dent, especially in Europe where they account for more than 20% of peak downstream mobile traffic.

In North America, Netflix is the largest single consumer of bandwidth. At peak, they’re tasked with 33% of downstream internet traffic. Off peak, they’re responsible for about 28.8% of downstream bandwidth.

As Netflix continues to expand into South America and Europe, they will certainly impose a bigger footprint on networks in those regions. Interestingly, they may also have a calming effect on other local internet traffic. Analysis shows that bit-torrent traffic, sometimes used to pirate movies and tv shows, actually decreases when Netflix is introduced into a market.

Since some Internet Service Providers slow down the internet for users running bit-torrent clients, Netflix may be something they’re willing to pay for.

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sources: sandvine.com, wikipedia (Netflix), torrentfreak.com

Entry filed under: Computers and Internet. Tags: 33%, bandwidth, europe, netflix, north america, peak, piracy, youtube.