Broadband ISP PlusNet UK has revealed that internet video / tv streaming has grown to account for up to 50% of its total data traffic during peak times. Online video site YouTube remains the most popular application and the BBC's iPlayer service comes in second, peaking at around 3Gbps last Thursday.

The situation was highlighted on Thursday 29th September 2011 when YouTube's servers went offline for almost one hour between 9pm and 10pm. This had a huge impact upon the normally fairly uniform flow of total data traffic through PlusNet's servers.


Cisco's recent 2011 Visual Networking Index (VNI) forecast predicted that global internet data traffic would quadruple by 2015, fuelled by a growing demand for broadband video and online TV ( IPTV ) content (here). Come 2015 global video traffic will account for 61% of all consumer internet usage.

Online video content is widely regarded as being one of the few truly killer applications for the new generation of superfast broadband services.