TV Everywhere platform HBO Go accounted for 3.4 percent of all U.S. Internet traffic during Sunday night's highly anticipated fifth-season premiere of Game of Thrones, while new OTT service HBO Now accounted for 0.7 percent.
This is according to research company Sandvine, provider of downstream-broadband-consumption reports that are probably as close to Nielsen overnights as online video gets.
In examining the most relevant programming brand in the pay-TV universe right now as it relates to online consumption, this data is interesting on several levels.
One is the relatively tiny overall online footprint of HBO. On the programming service's most-watched night of the year, its online platforms combined to take only a 4.1 percent share of downstream traffic. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), by comparison, commanded 33.5 percent of all downstream traffic, while YouTube accounted for 15.7 percent. The data is an indicaton that the vast majority of HBO customers still consume the network's programming in linear ways.
Another compelling point about the Sandvine data: HBO Now is less than two weeks old, and it already commands nearly 1 percent of downstream usage--even though HBO consumers have a variety of ways to watch Game of Thrones.
For more:
- read this Sandvine report
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