A new report confirms what you might have guessed. Netflix downloads hog nearly one third of the internet’s bandwidth. “Netflix consumes 32.7 percent of the Internet’s peak downstream traffic in North America, and … continues to be the most powerful driver of evening traffic, and for that matter, of daily traffic overall.” The report continues: “…despite some negative subscriber reaction to price hikes, Netflix has continued to increase its presence by adding 1 million U.S. subscribers since the Spring 2011 report, and by many measures Netflix rules North America’s fixed access networks.”
Totally not surprising. I’m a canadian suscriber and I’ve been more than pleased by their offer, even if we have less content than americans. They business model is simply better than conventional cable-TV. Moreover, with the OTA TV now gone digital and HD, my favorite generalist channel is available in better quality than cable. I simply switched to an unlimited DSL provider, dropped cable and went with a VoIP + dry loop setup. My total monthly cost for communications need : CAD 42$, less than half what I used to paid with Videotron!
The other 2 thirds must come from torrenting the content that isn’t available on NetFlix.
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I have a PS3 in my living room and a Samsung Bluray player in my bedroom. Both do Netflix, one does vudu, I think one does Hulu Plus but not regular Hulu, and _NEITHER_ do Amazon Video On Demand.
I won’t pay $100 a month to have cable or satellite, but I am more than willing to pay $2 an episode to watch shows on Showtime or HBO. Unfortunately when these stupid companies use exclusivity everyone loses. Nobody should have to have 3 different machines hooked up to each TV just to be able to get all the content they want.
I think most pirates are lazy and would pay $2 an episode through some nice interface because it is way easier and more convenient than pirating. Downloading a torrent on a computer, copying it to a thumb drive, go into another room and plug the thumb drive into your PS3/Xbox/Bluray player is a pain in the ass for the consumer and the networks aren’t getting any money.
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I don’t know about most (maybe, though, who knows), but I agree that plenty of pirating occurs due to the hassle of acquiring content. As a Canadian, I also face the issue of some content not being available. The latest season of Futurama, for example, is not broadcast on any Canadian network, is not yet available in Canadian iTunes (the US guys have it, and even the stuff we do have is over 15% more, which is bulls**t considering the dollar is practically at parity), and we don’t have access to Hulu, Vudu, etc. without some VPN service. So unless I want to wait 6-8 months to watch it, what option does that leave me with?
I gave up Netflix for Amazon Prime, not because I hated Netflix though. I just already had a Prime membership and the content was “good enough” for my usage, which is minimal these days.
I suspect there are many people out there like me that are finding alternatives to Netflix (Hulu, to name another). I know many people that have multiple accounts (Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, for instance) and still pay a lot less than they would for cable TV. The Internet TV scene is a relative bargain right now if you don’t care about seeing the shows as they first air.
ISP’s like to claim that Netflix uses their bandwidth without paying for it. However we need to remind the ISP that their subscriber’s are the one that pays for it. If I pay for high bandwidth internet, it’s to do things like stream video, VoIP, etc, etc…
+1’000’000’000!!!!
If they cant keep up with the bandwidth needs of their customers, then charge me more and stop lying about the bandwidth they are able to provide.
I pay for netflix and I pay for ISP so who is being cheated in this deal?
Well after I dumped Comcast TV years ago I found I could get most of the SciFi and other content I want from the two excellent public library systems in Massachusetts namely Minuteman and CMars. If it isn’t in the nearest library then it can be requested through the systems. The choice is far more limited than Netflix or any pay service and we have to wait months for new movies or shows. It is possible to borrow quite a few DVDs or DVD series sets at anyone time if you really push the system.
I estimate these systems have no more than maybe 10k unique titles and not always in the best condition either but it is already payed for in real estate taxes so why not use it. I have to visit the library every week anyway for the kids books.
He was a wacko, but Ted Stevens was cautioning the Senate about this back in 06 on the Broadband Deployment Act, with his “The internet is not a truck, it’s a series of tubes” buffoonery.