Streaming Content Dominates Online Traffic in Primetime

More and more North Americans are getting their evening entertainment from Netflix and YouTube, according to a new study.

Streaming online video and audio are luring more and more North American eyeballs away from television screens during primetime hours, as YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, and similar such sites now take up 60 per cent of the continent's bandwidth between 7 and 9 p.m. That's up 10 per cent from the year before, according to Sandvine, a company that analyzes online traffic trends. A third of all that data being downloaded was solely due to Netflix, the over-the-top subscription service that lets users stream movies and television series from their computers or gaming consoles. And while Netflix has lost reams of customers in recent months over changes to payment plans, the continuing trend of people watching their television online suggests the business model could become even more popular in the coming years. It also points to increasing strain put on networks in peak hours, leading the report to suggest that ISPs might soon charge more for bandwidth consumed during peak hours. Knowing Bell and Rogers, we'd say that's almost an absolute certainty.