2 research outputs found
On Factors Affecting the Usage and Adoption of a Nation-wide TV Streaming Service
Using nine months of access logs comprising 1.9 Billion sessions to BBC
iPlayer, we survey the UK ISP ecosystem to understand the factors affecting
adoption and usage of a high bandwidth TV streaming application across
different providers. We find evidence that connection speeds are important and
that external events can have a huge impact for live TV usage. Then, through a
temporal analysis of the access logs, we demonstrate that data usage caps
imposed by mobile ISPs significantly affect usage patterns, and look for
solutions. We show that product bundle discounts with a related fixed-line ISP,
a strategy already employed by some mobile providers, can better support user
needs and capture a bigger share of accesses. We observe that users regularly
split their sessions between mobile and fixed-line connections, suggesting a
straightforward strategy for offloading by speculatively pre-fetching content
from a fixed-line ISP before access on mobile devices.Comment: In Proceedings of IEEE INFOCOM 201
Streaming, Multi-Screens and YouTube:The New (Unsustainable) Ways of Watching in the Home
Internet use and online services underpin everyday life, and the resultant energy demand is almost entirely hidden, yet significant and growing: it is anticipated to reach 21% of global electricity demand by 2030 and to eclipse half the greenhouse gas emissions of transportation by 2040. Driving this growth, real-time video streaming (‘watching’) is estimated at around 50% of all peak data traffic. Using a mixed-methods analysis of the use of 66 devices (e.g. smart TVs, tablets) across 20 participants in 9 households, we reveal the online activity of domestic watching and provide a detailed exploration of video-on-demand activities. We identify new ways in which watching is transitioning in more rather than less data demanding directions; and explore the role HCI may play in reducing this growing data demand. We further highlight implications for key HCI and societal stakeholders (policy makers, service providers, network engineers) to tackle this important issue