Netflix still dominates the downstream on North American fixed access networks by a wide margin, but OTT rivals are also seeing increases in traffic, bandwidth management firm Sandvine found in its latest Global Internet Phenomena report.
Sandvine, which based its findings on data collected from 250-plus customers around the globe in September and October, said Netflix accounted for 37.1% of downstream traffic during primetime hours, slightly ahead of the 36.5% it represented in Sandvine’s last report.
In that same category, Netflix was followed by YouTube (17.8%), HTTP traffic (6.06%), Amazon Video (3.11%), iTunes (2.79%), BitTorrent (2.67%), Hulu (2.58%) and Facebook (2.53%).
Netflix also led on an aggregate (upstream and downstream) basis on fixed networks in North America, accounting for 34.7%, followed by YouTube (16.88%), HTTP, (6.05%), BitTorrent (4.35%), Amazon Video (2.94%), iTunes (2.62%), Facebook (2.51%) and Hulu (2.48%).
On a broader basis, real-time entertainment (audio and video streaming) gobbled up 70% of downstream bytes during peak periods, up from 35% five years ago. The latest real-time totals dwarfed Web browsing (7%), “Marketplaces” such as Android Marketplace, Apple iTunes and other spots that let consumers purchase and download media (6.79%); social networking (5.15%); and gaming (4.01%).
“Streaming Video has grown at such a rapid pace in North America that the leading service in 2015, Netflix, now has a greater share of traffic than all of streaming audio and video did five years ago,” Dave Caputo, Sandvine’s CEO, said in a statement. “With Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Video, and Hulu increasing their share since our last report, it further underscores both the growing role these streaming services play in the lives of subscribers, and the need for service providers to have solutions to help deliver a quality experience when using them.”
On the mobile side, real-time entertainment traffic dominated the downstream, accounting for 40% of the downstream bytes. On an aggregate basis, YouTube led with 19.59%, followed by Facebook (16.35%); HTTP (10.69%); secure-socket layer traffic that encrypted links between a web server and a browser; Google (4.33%), Snapchat (4.11%); MPEG-other (4.09%); Pandora Radio (3.95%); Instagram (3.79%) and Netflix (3.22%).
