Could new Sky Player cause another surge in streaming video?
Monday 19 May 2008 14:46:13 by Andrew Ferguson
The final launch of the BBC iPlayer in particular its ability to stream TV shows led to a rapid growth in the use of broadband for TV viewing. Sky has had its Sky Anytime software running for some time, but a redesign that will see it offering live streams of several Sky channels may boost its popularity. The updated service will be known as Sky Player.
The fact that streams from the BBC iPlayer are eight times more popular than downloads may be partially behind the changes in the Sky Player, but another factor may be that the Go!View service for the Sony PSP is due to launch soon.
PlusNet is suggesting that streaming video usage is leveling off according to their latest blog entry.One key thing with video streaming is that it is a live event and thus open to spikes in usage. In years gone by if a TV transmitter went off air a whole region would miss a TV show. Now they can simply log on to many broadcasters websites and catch the show there. The end result would be a surge in traffic that might lead to people getting lower quality streams, or in some cases, not being able to view the content at all.
If the leveling of usage does level out and simply continue to grow as more people get broadband it would suggest that services like the BBC iPlayer are now being used by most of the people who want to use them, and the predicted collapse of the internet in the UK may be on hold for a bit longer.
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8 months ago
Back in April 2008 headlines like "BBC iPlayer 'risks overloading the internet'" were all the rage.
I think we should roll on the fiber!
Yea that was my point Andrew
It shouldn't matter much if Sky Player causes a surge in streaming video.
I bet the majority of users would be using SKY Broadband LLU equiptment anyway
Depends on how you have found Sky Broadband.
Personally, I found it to be unreliable, slow, and annoying.
Swapped as soon as I could. Cheap doesn't equal good
I said at the time whinging would start about iplayer sooner or later from ISPs and its all nicely building to a head now.
The next throttle you stupid era will obviously be streamed media of any type, which will lead to people going back to p2p for their fix.
New services will always equal new demand, i wonder how many years its gonna take some demented ISPs to comprehend that?
Sky LLU is probably the second highest performing ISP in the UK after Be Broadband. No traffic shaping, no apparent enforcing of FUP (people have downloaded over 100GB+month on £5 40Gb tier). If that's not value then I don't know what is!
g-bhxu made an extremely good point. This player would have minimal affect on other ISP's and I'm sure Sky's network and the vast amount of money invested in it, would have no problem at all dealing with the extra traffic this produces.
It's also very interesting to see that P2P usage is going down as streaming increases. I often strema video on 4od and bbci player rather than downloading them from torrent sites now
quote"It's also very interesting to see that P2P usage is going down as streaming increases. I often strema video on 4od and bbci player rather than downloading them from torrent sites now"
Id say thats more normal than interesting, if someone can watch a stream instantly they obviously wont bother waiting for it to download... Torrent traffic declines streaming goes up, all whats happened is the traffic has shifted to another protocol, soon as they cap streaming and not bother with P2P cos noone is using it, people will just move onto the next protocol to get the content they want.
easynet's large nationwide network wont even break a sweat on this. Not so sure about ipstream folks tho :(
@ uklad77 ... as we all know, like any new service there will be issues, especially with such a large addition of customer's and how quick they have grown.
Personally, we're on MAX @ £10 p/m and sync at 12000Kbps and are real happy with the service...I'm no salesman but give them a try again uklad77 :P
@ chrysalis - you mention easynet's large network and the use of iplayer and Sky's new player not breaking sweat ... do you, or anyone else know how big their network is - I've seen 320 petabit mentioned - can anyone quantify this for me? laymans terms if possible. thanks.
quote"...do you, or anyone else know how big their network is - I've seen 320 petabit mentioned - can anyone quantify this for me? laymans terms if possible. thanks."
It would be nice to know, and i cant say, what i can say is UKonlines we are getting annoyed with you limit previously was 500gig, just going on that and the amount of customers they have i think its pretty safe to say sky LLU wont be falling apart at the seams with a new demand MAX products through BT gear though may be another story.
QUOTE:It would be nice to know, and i cant say, what i can say is UKonlines we are getting annoyed with you limit previously was 500gig, just going on that and the amount of customers they have i think its pretty safe to say sky LLU wont be falling apart at the seams with a new demand MAX products through BT gear though may be another story.
@ Carptetburn - could you be a bit clearer please
Only real figures mentioned are here..
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top10.php
- most ISPs wont tell in public, you would need 'business connections' to find the real number of suscribers I guess...
"August to April from 208MB to 209MB per day"
WHAT collapse? As plusnet point out in that blog, p2p and usenet usage has fallen.. probably as a direct result.