Netflix and YouTube Represent 50% of Downstream Traffic During Peak Hours in September, Study Says

By Todd Spangler for Variety 

Netflix remains the biggest pig in the broadband python, representing 31.6% of all downstream Internet traffic in North America during primetime hours in September – well ahead of any other streaming service, according to a new study.

The Internet video-subscription service, with more than 31 million streaming members in the U.S. alone, uses nearly 20 times more peak-period bandwidth than Amazon video, which has 1.6% share, and is 24 times bigger than Hulu (at 1.3%), according to the study by network-equipment maker Sandvine.

Meanwhile, YouTube usage continues to climb, with 18.6% share of downstream peak bandwidth in September (up from 17.1% in March). In North America, Netflix and YouTube combined now account for more than 50% of downstream traffic on fixed networks, according to Sandvine.

Peer-to-peer file-sharing apps like BitTorrent now eat up less than 10% of total daily traffic in North America, whereas five years ago they accounted for over 31%. Web browsing made up 9.7% of peak-period downstream bandwidth in the region, followed by Apple’s iTunes at 3.3%.

In other parts of the world, YouTube is the biggest consumer of bandwidth. In Europe, YouTube represented of 28.7% of downstream traffic (followed by the web at 15.6%). In Latin America, YouTube’s downstream share is 36.8% (followed by web browsing at 20%) and in Asia-Pacific, YouTube represents 31.2% (followed by BitTorrent 14.3% and web at 10.5%).

The data for Sandvine’s “Global Internet Phenomena Report 2H2013″ report was compiled in September 2013 from a subset of the company’s 250-plus service provider customers worldwide.

This is an excerpt. Click here to read the full article in Variety.