Comments on: Streaming Usage Running out of Steam? Or Just a Lull Before the Next iPlayer Storm?

By: Neil_A

Neil_A — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:32:32 +0000

Perhaps our customers are more likely to be early adopters than other larger ISPs? So maybe this signals that the Beeb's own growth figures may slow next month or the month after?

By: Kelly Dorset

Kelly Dorset — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:51:17 +0000

Perhaps it's a reflection of our relative customer make up?

Also, we've not been afraid to talk to our customers about iPlayer for a while now, so perhaps we shifted the take up curve earlier?

By: drunkenmonkey

drunkenmonkey — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:32:24 +0000

The bbc just released their figures for Iplayer usage and it was reported at: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a96400/bbc-iplayer-use-grew-22-percent-in-april.html

I loved the final comment at the bottom:

"The BBC figures suggest the behaviour of users on PlusNet, a relatively small ISP, was not reflective of others in the UK."

By: Dave Tomlinson

Dave Tomlinson — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:41:33 +0000

Good point. 10% of downloads means 10% of all downstream traffic. Will try and make sure it's fully clear in the future.

By: A Reader

A Reader — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:12:52 +0000

Dave,

Nice info, but please please please can you be clear and unambiguous in what you write.

For example: "Streaming now accounts for more than 10% of downloads" - what does that mean? 10% of all downstream traffic, or 10% of some group of traffic which you're calling "downloads". It may be obvvious to you, but it's not to me (and I'm a Plusnet punter).

There are lots of folk following these articles in interesting places, it would be good for them to not misunderstand.

Thanks!

By: Dave Tomlinson

Dave Tomlinson — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:18:44 +0000

There's an increase in usage as well as a shift, the actual usage per month or per day has increased while the percentage of traffic is shifting towards streaming and away from P2P.

Take a look at the monthly usage patterns on the sheet on this post:

http://usergroup.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,6064.0.html

I'll update it next week hopefully with April's data (it takes a few hours to produce).

iPlayer is indentified as Streaming (both the Flash and download versions).

By: nerd.

nerd. — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:33:04 +0000

So in short are you saying that the iPlayer seems to be having only a small effect on total bandwidth used per customer, causing more of a shift in type of usage than an increase in quantity?

Also, what category to iPlayer downloads fall into? Streaming or P2P?