Broadband News

UK broadband infrastructure not ready for online video streaming

Tuesday 14 February, 2012

By Duncan Heaney

UK average is enough for BBC iPlayer, not enough for HD, says report.

The rise of online on-demand video services is changing the way we watch TV. More and more of us are choosing to watch programmes online at our convenience, rather than as they’re broadcast live. It’s clear that streaming video services are here to stay, but is the UK ready for them?

Perhaps not. Analysis from the Daily Telegraph suggests that the average broadband connection in the UK is insufficient to cope with the rising demands of online video.

In urban areas, the typical broadband speed is 6.9Mb, which is enough to comfortably run BBC iPlayer. However, rural areas on similar tariffs only get an average speed of 3.2Mb. Although that’s still just enough to run iPlayer, but it doesn’t leave much bandwidth left for other tasks, making it insufficient if more than one person is online at the same time.

Higher quality video poses an even greater problem. Streaming DVD-quality video requires 10Mb at least. High definition television, such as Sky Movies HD, ITV HD and Sky Sports HD requires between 10 and 15Mb. And to stream Blu-Ray standard HD video demands a 40Mb connection or better.

According to telecoms watchdog Ofcom, the UK’s average speed currently stands at 7.6Mb - well below what’s needed to run high quality video services.

A spokesman from Virgin Media explained: “Even a 720p HD stream (the lowest resolution HD available) will take nearly 4Mb of bandwidth. If you want broadcast quality, you’ll need a faster connection than the UK average and that’s not taking into account all the other simultaneous demands on your broadband such as smartphones and tablets.”

Last year, the government pledged more than £360 million to improve broadband across the country, including rural areas, with the goal of giving Britain the best broadband in Europe by 2015. Broadband providers are racing to bolster their infrastructure - Virgin Media recently announced it was doubling its broadband speeds, and many, including BT, and Sky are in the process of rolling out superfast fibre optic broadband across the UK.

So even if the UK isn’t completely ready for streaming video now, hopefully it will be in the next few years.

Photo by adrienneserra