What do people do when they get home from work? More than ever, they re getting their stream on. According to networking company Sandvine, real-time entertainment including streaming video and audio now makes up more than 70 percent of downstream fixed-network Internet traffic in North America during peak evening hours, compared with less than 35 percent five years ago.
Netflix accounts for 37.1 percent of that traffic, the new Sandvine report says. It s followed by YouTube (17.9 percent) and Amazon Video (3.1 percent). Meanwhile, Bloomberg points out that YouTube is growing faster than Facebook video: Despite Facebook s increased focus on video, Sandvine s numbers say the social network s video bandwidth share actually dropped to 2.5 percent from 3 percent a year ago.
Sandvine s numbers were collected in September and October from a selection of its more than 250 communications service provider customers.
In other video-streaming news:
Netflix wants to keep hogging that bandwidth. Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos reportedly said Monday that the Los Gatos company is almost doubling its number of scripted shows in 2016 to 31 shows, up from 16 in 2015.
And do you want a side of Showtime or Starz with your Prime? Amazon can make it happen. It announced today that Prime subscribers now have the option to add on Showtime (at $8.99 a month, cheaper than through Apple or Google), Starz and several other programming channels. Variety notes that this is the first time Starz has been available unbundled from traditional pay TV.
Photo from Associated Press
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