Netflix Streaming Consumed Nearly 15 Percent of Global Downstream Internet Traffic in H1 2018: Study

If you thought Netflix is only raising up your Internet bills, a recent report claims that the video streaming service is actually eating up a sizeable chunk of the entire Internet bandwidth, globally.

According to Sandvine's Global Internet Phenomena Report, Netflix is the number one downstream application worldwide with almost 15 percent of global Internet downstream traffic in the first half of 2018. In the Americas, the share tops 19.1 percent for total traffic, followed by Prime Video at 7.7 percent and YouTube at 7.5 percent.

The report further claims that Netflix is also the most efficient video streaming service in terms of bandwidth usage.

Following Netflix is HTTP media streams, consuming 13.1 percent of all traffic, YouTube at 11.4 percent, Web-browsing at 7.8 percent, and MPEG transport streams at 4.4 percent.

Netflix was recently in the news by collaborating with Airtel for bundled offers. While the offers for postpaid and broadband subscribers were first announced in August, Airtel only this month started rolling out the offer for its postpaid subscribers. For now, there is no information on when it will become available for broadband subscribers.

For now, Airtel appears to be offering a 3-month Netflix subscription to subscribers with postpaid plans worth Rs. 499 or above per month. This means, apart from Rs. 499, subscribers on the Rs. 649, Rs. 799, Rs. 1,199, Rs. 1,599, Rs. 1,999, and Rs. 2,999 plans will get access to the subscription. The 3-month subscription gives access to the base Rs. 500 Netflix plan, with single-screen access and SD quality videos.

Written with inputs from ANI