Data abounds to show that watching multiple episodes of your favorite movie or TV show at once on IPTV in UK or any other streaming service has a larger environmental impact than you might expect—or desire. What follows is some information on the shockingly large energy footprint of streaming services, as well as some suggestions for how you may assist in reducing your own digital carbon footprint.
Is Binge Watching Environmentally Harmful?
Those responsible for the background: Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Netflix, Hulu, and other video streaming services rely on big data centers to power their content. The carbon dioxide emissions from just half an hour of television viewing are 1.6 kg, which is the same as the emissions from roughly four miles of driving. Online video streaming services produced as much pollution as Spain (yep, the whole nation) put out in a year. Not to mention that streaming is projected to quadruple the quantity of internet traffic.
How Can You Help in Reducing Your Impact to the Environment
Big internet companies must be aware and admit that renewable energy is the main source of powering their data centers. Companies in the streaming industry can reduce the environmental impact of their data systems by switching to renewable energy sources from fossil fuels. As an example among several big streaming services, Netflix received an overall “D” rating from the advocacy group in a research that rated dozens of corporations in a 2017 report.
According to their calculations, 17% of Netflix’s power comes from renewable sources.
With 56% of its energy coming from renewable sources, Google (YouTube) received a “A” score. The majority of Apple’s energy, 83% to be exact, came from renewable sources; the company received a “A” overall grade.
What Is Your Average Daily TV Viewing Duration?
The consumption of energy by online streaming videos is on the rise; what can you do to stop it?
People need to take some of the blame on themselves. We can all benefit from less demand for streaming services and maybe even better health if we can all just limit our nightly streaming to an hour instead of three or four. Applications that track screen time can be useful for establishing reasonable boundaries.
Another important way to reduce the impact on the environment is investing in carbon offsets. There are free online carbon footprint calculator available and could be of big help to determine your own impact.