The case for data offload onto Wi-Fi becomes clearer to me every day. comScore just released its October statistics from its Video Metrix report and the current findings are astounding. For the month of October, they cite 42.6 billion videos have been viewed which translates to approximately 21 hours on average per viewer. It’s unclear how much data that really is but I think it’s safe to say that it constitutes A LOT.
Admittedly, these stats don’t break out what type of device is streaming the content. Therefore, it’s most likely a mix of desktop and mobile devices but in what quantities is uncertain. Even if streaming to mobile i.e. smartphones and tablets is the lesser of the two, we’re still talking large amounts of data being streamed across wireless networks. I can’t say with great certainty that the wireless operators are capable of handling the data presently across their networks without issue or even efficiently. We’ve all experienced problems when streaming content at one point or another, and I’m not just talking about movies or music. When it comes to simple web browsing, who hasn’t experienced lag? But what happens in five years or even ten as data usage grows, specifically video and other media. As the proliferation of mobile devices increases, so will the content that is streamed and viewed on them.
It’s safe to say that improved mobile devices and faster networks are the wave of the future. But I think it’s also safe to say that data overload and network congestion are the tsunami of the future as well. I would love to see how many videos are viewed in October 2016 and how the wireless operators are dealing with this data crunch.
Read the Techcrunch blog post on these findings here: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/28/u-s-online-video-watching-reaches-record-high-in-october-with-42-6-billion-videos-viewed/