Here's How Much Data Popular Streaming Sites Use
Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2021 3:43 pm
Dealing with Data Caps? This will give you a good idea how fast data popular live TV streaming apps can burn through data when watching content on their platform.
Mbps = Megabits per second. Multiply the number of Mbps times 60 for a minute than multiply this total X 60 again for the amount of data used for an hour long TV show.
1000 MB = 1 Gigabyte. 1000 Gigabytes =Terabyte.
ABC app (Live and Local Shows): 720@30 - 2.34Mbps
ESPN app (Live Videos): 720@60 - 5.77Mbps
Fox Now app (Live and Local Shows): 720@60 - 5.21Mbps
Fox Sports app (Live TV): 720@60 - 4Mbps
NBC app (Live Local): 720@60 - 5.43Mbps
OTA Network TV Streamed in 720p (Stations like ABC/FOX, etc): 720@60fps - about 3.5Mbps
Over The Air (OTA) from Antenna Network TV Stations 1080p Network TV 1080 at 60fps - approximately 5Mbps
Paramount+ (Live local CBS): 1080@60 - 10.16Mbps
Spectrum: All channels stream in 720p only with their app.
- Non-Sports Channels: 720@60 - 5.6Mbps
- Sports: 720@60: 6.6Mbps
YouTube TV: Not all channels are available to stream in 1080p
- 1080 Network TV (non-sports/CBS/NBC, and others): 1080@60fps - about 5Mbps
- 720 Network TV (non-sports/ABC/FOX, and others): 720@60fps - about 3.5Mbps
- Live Sports Channels (ESPN, Fox Sports): 720@60fps - about 5.5Mbps
So once you do some simple math you can get a pretty good idea from these numbers that watching a 2 hour game on ESPN would consume approx 41.5 megabytes of data.
Here is the formula with ESPN used as an example to get this number.
ESPN 5.77Mbps (5.77 X 60 = 346.20 Mbs per minute.) 346.20 X 120 minutes = 41,544 Megabytes used for a 2 hour sports show or movie.
With typical data caps for cable in a month approximately 1.2 TB or 1200 gigabytes. And cellular plans give you much less. A typical unlimited cell phone data plan will slow down or throttle your connection if you exceed 50 GB.
It does not take a lot of effort when streaming HD content to reach these caps. And forget about streaming 4K content, it uses close to double the amount of data as a 1080p stream.
But the good news is a 720p stream is still very nice and much clearer with more detail than 480p.
Try a Free Trial to these Streaming Channels and More
Mbps = Megabits per second. Multiply the number of Mbps times 60 for a minute than multiply this total X 60 again for the amount of data used for an hour long TV show.
1000 MB = 1 Gigabyte. 1000 Gigabytes =Terabyte.
ABC app (Live and Local Shows): 720@30 - 2.34Mbps
ESPN app (Live Videos): 720@60 - 5.77Mbps
Fox Now app (Live and Local Shows): 720@60 - 5.21Mbps
Fox Sports app (Live TV): 720@60 - 4Mbps
NBC app (Live Local): 720@60 - 5.43Mbps
OTA Network TV Streamed in 720p (Stations like ABC/FOX, etc): 720@60fps - about 3.5Mbps
Over The Air (OTA) from Antenna Network TV Stations 1080p Network TV 1080 at 60fps - approximately 5Mbps
Paramount+ (Live local CBS): 1080@60 - 10.16Mbps
Spectrum: All channels stream in 720p only with their app.
- Non-Sports Channels: 720@60 - 5.6Mbps
- Sports: 720@60: 6.6Mbps
YouTube TV: Not all channels are available to stream in 1080p
- 1080 Network TV (non-sports/CBS/NBC, and others): 1080@60fps - about 5Mbps
- 720 Network TV (non-sports/ABC/FOX, and others): 720@60fps - about 3.5Mbps
- Live Sports Channels (ESPN, Fox Sports): 720@60fps - about 5.5Mbps
So once you do some simple math you can get a pretty good idea from these numbers that watching a 2 hour game on ESPN would consume approx 41.5 megabytes of data.
Here is the formula with ESPN used as an example to get this number.
ESPN 5.77Mbps (5.77 X 60 = 346.20 Mbs per minute.) 346.20 X 120 minutes = 41,544 Megabytes used for a 2 hour sports show or movie.
With typical data caps for cable in a month approximately 1.2 TB or 1200 gigabytes. And cellular plans give you much less. A typical unlimited cell phone data plan will slow down or throttle your connection if you exceed 50 GB.
It does not take a lot of effort when streaming HD content to reach these caps. And forget about streaming 4K content, it uses close to double the amount of data as a 1080p stream.
But the good news is a 720p stream is still very nice and much clearer with more detail than 480p.
Try a Free Trial to these Streaming Channels and More