Netflix uses one third of all downstream internet traffic

According to a recent report from the Canadian research company Sandvine, Netflix accounts for one-third of North America's Internet Traffic.

The video streaming service reportedly uses 34.89 percent of downstream and 9.4 percent of upstream bandwidth, followed by YouTube with 14 percent of traffic, Facebok, iTunes, BitTorrent, Hulu and Amazon. In comparison, Sandvine's last report from 2013, showed that Netflix traffic was only at 31.6% of overall bandwidth usage in th US. An average U.S. family now uses 20.4GB per month for Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Amazon and social networks, according to the report.

The data for the latest report has been collected through the second half of 2014 during peak hours - the times of day when subscribers use the service the most. Only fixed bandwidth is considered, meaning that internet traffic via cell phones is not part of the research.

"With both Netflix and Amazon Instant Video gaining bandwidth share in North America during 2014, it will be fascinating to see how a stand-alone HBO GO streaming option will impact networks when it launches in 2015," said Dave Caputo, President and CEO, Sandvine. "The dynamic streaming video market underscores how important it is that operators around the globe have the business intelligence and big data solutions in place to understand the ever-changing behaviour of their subscribers."

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