Netflix is a movie delivery service which allows customers to stream movies and tv shows from a number of devices that they own. After venturing out the US and into Canada, 20% of Canadians visited the site after it was released, and they weren’t just having a browse. They were signing up! Since then Netflix has quickly become a phenomenon which is starting to put a strain on the internet.
Netflix accounts for 20% of downstream Internet traffic during peak home Internet usage hours in North America. That’s an amazing share—it beats that of YouTube, iTunes, Hulu, and, perhaps most tellingly, the peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol BitTorrent, which accounts for a mere 8 percent of bandwidth during peak hours.
Netflix’s rapid growth comes down to two main factors:
- Netflix has signed deals with TV networks and movie distributors that let it add a lot more movies and shows.
- Second, Netflix’s streaming service is now available on a wide range of devices—you can watch with your computer, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Blu-ray and DVD players, Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox, and a range of Web-connected TVs. This means that you can start watching a film on your tv, continue it on your PC and then finish it off on your smart phone.
During peak internet times, only 2% of Netflix’s users are online, this figure is set to grow and if 2% can take up that much bandwidth can you imagine what 5% or 6% will do!