One article that really caught my eye was “Netflix video 'king' of US Internet traffic. Netflix is a paid video streaming service that allows its customers to stream TV shows from their laptops,desktop,phones and game consoles. The article states that the amount of bandwidth used by Netflix users account for almost 30% of total bandwidth in the United States. It's very surprising that so much bandwidth is used to watch movies and television. I'm not sure if that says something about our culture now. This is starting to show a trend in which many people are no longer using cable or satellite TV to get their shows. There are many streaming sites now, such as Hulu and Netflix where people are able to get their shows, most of the time commercial free, for lower than their cable bill. I have also tried Netflix, it is actually a very good service, although I believed their selection of movies to be somewhat lacking.
There is one frightening thing that could arise from this study, that being net neutrality. Net neutrality is the idea that no ISP or government is allowed to restrict your internet access, either through internet speed or website restriction. If there was no net neutrality, ISPs could theoretically charge more for a higher internet connections and also a premium for extra sites and such. Some ISPs could also put a cap on your bandwidth also, so you could not watch all your favourites through Netflix, making one go back to cable or satellite. With these ad-free streaming sites, many companies will start losing money because of advertising.
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