Virgin Media UK Maintains Lead in Netflix’s Broadband ISP Speed Index

Netflix, the popular Internet movie and TV streaming provider, has just published their latest April 2015 ISP Speed Index update for the United Kingdom and revealed that Virgin Media is still holding the top spot with a score of 3.74Mbps (Megabits per second). But take with the usual pinch of salt.

As usual it’s crucial to reflect that Netflix’s Speed Index can be a little misleading without the proper context. The index is simply a measure of “prime time” Netflix streaming performance per ISP and as such it should never be taken as a table that reflects the actual capability of your broadband connection, as should be obvious by the results.

Indeed the results can be influenced by various different factors, such as whether or not most people are streaming in SD (Standard Definition), HD (High Definition) or 4K (ULTRA HD) video quality. The dynamic nature of different video codecs (bitrates vary as the video stream changes), slow WiFi networks and an ISPs Traffic Management measures can also all play a part.

Netflix’s Recommended Internet Download Speeds
* 0.5 Megabits per second – Required broadband connection speed
* 1.5 Megabits per second – Recommended broadband connection speed
* 3.0 Megabits per second – Recommended for SD quality
* 5.0 Megabits per second – Recommended for HD quality
* 25 Megabits per second – Recommended for Ultra HD quality

Netflix tends to charge a little more for their higher quality video streams (plus there’s not a lot of 4K content or users yet), which means that most people go for their default SD or HD options and as such you’d thus expect the results to be largely reflective of this and the natural movement of any associated streaming traffic.

Netflix’s UK ISP Speed Index – April 2015 (Aug 2014 Comparison)
1. Virgin Media – 3.79Mbps (3.42Mbps)
2. BT – 3.49Mbps (3.01Mbps)
3. TalkTalk – 3.19Mbps (2.72Mbps)
4. Sky Broadband – 3.15Mbps (2.79Mbps)
5. EE – 3.01Mbps (2.70Mbps)

As a result of all this it’s not surprising to find that the average performance isn’t dramatically different between ISPs and doesn’t change much over time, with most of the improvements likely to stem from a gradual rise in the number of higher quality streams rather than people using faster connections; though there will be a little bit of the later.

But as usual what we’re really missing here is a bit more detail, such as the ability to see performance separated by stream quality and the impact on performance during different times of the day. Likewise Netflix is popular enough that it should be able to offer a bigger selection of ISPs, although sadly they still continue to focus on only the largest players.