We recently wrote about the effect of iOS 5's release on our network performance but large sporting events occur more frequently and are tracked to make sure that our network performs well. As streaming services increase in popularity, we make sure that sufficient bandwidth is available to cover all of our customers' usage. Checking our traffic graphs this morning showed some interesting trends on Sky Go during the Manchester derby… 
Coverage started at 1pm; total bandwidth quickly exceeded 1Gbps by kick off and settled at around 2Gbps for the first half. However, two large peaks shortly afterwards added around 500Mbps for the second half. A quick look at Twitter’s trending topics courtesy of Trendistic © Flaptor suggests why so many people tuned in for the second half, with nearly 2% of all global tweets talking about the match… 
A check of the week's total bandwidth shows that whilst the extra traffic was noticeable, it's only a small blip compared to the total amount used by our customers that day and kept us well within tolerance, with around 10Gbps spare. The network performed very well over the weekend without any breaches of our tolerance for latency so broadband phone calls, streaming video and VoIP services retained excellent performance. 
As a Liverpool follower, I couldn’t help but laugh at Sir Alex Ferguson’s “worst day ever“! Losing to Manchester City in the derby is bad enough, but losing 6-1 is just embarrassing! However, one table that Manchester United still dominate is our traffic rankings for Premier League matches…
- Manchester United v Manchester City 2.6Gbps
- Manchester United v Chelsea 2.2Gbps
- Liverpool v Manchester United 2Gbps
- Manchester United v Tottenham 1.8Gbps
At least that’s some consolation 