Big screen still dominates streaming on big game days

The latest in the Plume IQ series of reports explored the increase in data consumption across streaming devices on Super Bowl Sunday, the highest-viewed American television broadcast event of the year. Figures showed the increase in data usage on 13 February 2022, when compared with typical daily usage across a sample of Plume-powered homes in the US.

On big game day, 13 February 2022, the study found that compared with a typical day for Plume-powered households in the US, data consumption increased by 31% for televisions; 20% for set-top boxes and tablets; 11% for smartphones; and 9% for game consoles.

Looking at data consumption for US televisions, the research revealed that consumption was up 44% for Sony branded devices; 40% for Samsung branded devices; 38% for LG branded devices; and 32% for Apple branded devices.

“We are very excited to conclude that, despite the vast number of more personalized small screen streaming devices we see across Plume-powered networks, our data suggests that major sporting events are still about the big screen social experience for many smart home users” said Bill McFarland, CTO at Plume. “For service providers, intelligent network management and of course, self-optimising adaptive Wi-Fi are key to delivering the best consumer experiences as major events continue to dominate the big screen and draw increasingly more bandwidth with higher quality streaming such as 4K UHD.” Rapid TV News