The prime times they are a changin'
Internet's takeover from traditional broadcast television has also shifted the traditional peak viewing time
- Between 9pm and 11pm is the busiest period for internet users watching on-demand services
- Global internet traffic study conducted by Cisco has no data to explain why the prime time is later
The internet has developed its own prime time, according to new research by online global traffic researcher Cisco.
The latest study has revealed that the internet is busiest between 9pm and 11pm around the world, and the vast majority of these will be watching some sort of video service, be it Netflix, Youtube or whatever else.
In the UK at least, the traditional peak viewing time for broadcast television has historically between 7pm and 9pm, and now online television is starting to encroach on that, with those two hours becoming the second most common time to tune in, where 11pm and 1am had previously occupied.
Internet peak-hour traffic is forecast grow fourfold in the next four years
As of yet the research has no data to explain why the average prime time, according to Arielle Sumits, senior analyst at Cisco's Visual Networking Index Team. "We don't know if broadcast viewing takes place a little earlier, people want to tune in to newsier content, then go to on-demand for entertainment,” she says. “But on-demand is contributing to the fact that busy-hour is getting earlier.”
Internet peak-hour traffic is forecast grow fourfold in the next four years, compared with a twofold increase in average hourly internet traffic across the whole day.