Trend to streaming media backed up by ISP data

Yesterday I wrote about Amazon extending their video streaming service, and now today I read about traffic data at ISP Plusnet that backs up this trend (via the blogs of Azeem Azhar and Martin Varsavsky).

The data from Plusnet’s network (they are a UK ISP owned by BT with over 200,000 customers):

• Streaming usage is 170% higher than it was a year ago
• P2P traffic is 8.75% lower in absolute terms than it was a year ago and has fallen more sharply as a percentage of total traffic from 36% to 26%
• The record hour for highest amount of streaming was broken four times in June (data was released in July)

Plusnet think the increase is due to video streaming services from the major broadcasters here in the UK – iPlayer, 4OD and Sky Player.

I see this as more evidence that people don’t necessarily need or want to ‘own’ content. They just want to be able to consume it. I think it is also starting to show that people will happily suffer a few ads for the convenience of a streaming service versus the hassle of downloading via illegal file sharing.