While Netflix viewing remains flat, Amazon SVOD usage is on the move, Sandvine reports

Offering some of the most illuminating data available in the murky area of audience research for streaming content, Sandvine's latest bi-annual traffic trends report shows fledgling SVOD service Amazon Prime Instant Video has nearly doubled its footprint over the last six months as usage for the sector's dominant player, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), has remained largely flat.

The research company's Global Internet Phenomena Report 2H 2014 shows that Amazon Instant Video (NASDAQ: AMZN) usage has more than doubled since Sandvine's last report. It now accounts for nearly 2.6 percent of downstream usage.

Netflix is still far and away the biggest consumer of downstream traffic, but it's 34.9 percent downstream share is basically flat with the 34 percent share reported for the first half of 2014 back.

This data is, of course, useful to pay-TV operators and programmers, who are flying blind as they compete and partner with the major SVOD services, which notoriously give out little to no information about viewer consumption.

Also notable: YouTube's share of downstream Internet traffic declined significantly from the 18.9 percent reported for the first half of 2014 to 14 percent.

And Hulu's share declined from 1.7 percent to 1.4 percent.

Sandvine peak traffic

Top 10 peak period applications, North America, fixed access. (Source: Sandvine Global Internet Phenomena Report, 2H14)

For more:
- see this Sandvine press release
- read this Ars Technica story

Related links:
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