Netflix dominates prime-time data usage in Canada, tripled in 3 years: report

By Michael Oliveira, The Canadian Press

TORONTO – When Canadians jump on the Internet during prime-time evening hours it’s increasingly because they want to stream something on Netflix, suggests Waterloo, Ont.-based networking company Sandvine.

An analysis of downloading traffic during evenings in Canada found that 30 to 40 per cent of the data consumed was usually linked to Netflix streams, which was higher than any other Internet activity.

On a typical evening, YouTube viewing, web browsing, Facebook usage and accessing content via BitTorrent were the other top ways Canadians chewed through megabytes and gigabytes.

Prime-time Netflix streaming has grown about threefold in recent years, Sandvine reported. Three years ago, Netflix accounted for just 13.5 per cent of downloaded data during evening hours in Canada.

On mobile networks in Canada, social media drives the most downloading of data.

Over 25 per cent of the data downloaded by Canadian mobile devices typically funnels through social networking apps. Facebook gets the most usage followed by Instagram and Twitter.

YouTube accounted for about 20 per cent of downloading traffic on mobile devices.

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