The delivery of video data is estimated to currently make up about 80% of trafic in networks 1 A substantial share of this trafic is for video on demand (VoD). Globally, wired and wireless networks are estimated to account for about 270TWh of annually electricity consumption 2 (about 1% of global consumption). As television audiences transition from broadcast to streaming 3, consume video at higher quality (e.g. in ultra high definition UHD and with high dynamic range HDR), and new forms of video based media emerge, the associated implications on carbon emissions need to be understood. As all parts of the economy are setting decarbonisation goals, we need to understand the current impact of video streaming and the drivers that can influence this impact in the future. Based on this understanding, we can enable the relevant parties (media companies, infrastructure operators, users and regulators) to support the decarbonisation agenda.
CEUR Workshop Proceedings 1https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/m/en_us/solutions/service-provider/vni-forecast-highlights/pdf/Global_Device_ Growth_Traffic_Profiles.pdf 2https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/POST-PN-0677/POST-PN-0677.pdf 3https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/going-all-digital-bbc-france-televisions-consider-online-only-futures/ Acknowledgments The presented ideas are based on work with Prof Chris Preist and Paul Shabajee.