High levels of television viewing during Super Bowl XLVII
once again reduced Internet traffic during the game by about 15%, reports
Sandvine, a provider of broadband technologies.
CBS has not yet released data on their live stream of the
big game, the second time in history the event has been made available on the Internet.
But the Sandvine numbers would confirm the network's strategies of focusing on
its streamingand digital components as a complement to viewing on the TV.
Overall, Sandvine reported that "the Super Bowl stream
accounted for over 3% of total network traffic for the evening."
"For the second year in a row, the Super Bowl was
streamed online for viewers in the US," a blog posted by Dan Deeth on
Sandvine's site noted. "While many might think the big game might cause
big demand on fixed access networks, the truth is while everyone is watching
the game on their television they are actually giving the network a break from
usage....At Sandvine's we've long maintained that the biggest screen is always
the best screen to consume content, and for the Super Bowl it makes sense that
most people would prefer to watch the game on their large HDTV.
"Sandvine's traffic statistics have showed continued
growth in adoption of live streamed sports events, but for the time being it is
no threat to replace viewing via traditional broadcast method," the blog
concluded.
