Streaming and data use: A guide to the top three.

How much data does streaming use?

Streaming services in Australia are rapidly becoming more popular as providers such as Netflix, Stan, and Foxtel Now continue to bring high-quality original content to audiences.
While Australians in metropolitan areas may be able to embrace the streaming lifestyle with relative ease, customers situated in rural and regional Australia who aren’t able to access higher data allowances at times have difficulty staying under their data cap whilst streaming. There’s good news and bad news here. The good news is that both Netflix and Stan have downloading capabilities that mean you can utilise your off-peak data. The bad news is that at current, manual scheduling of downloads isn’t possible via the apps themselves. Options exist for technology and programs that help with download scheduling to SD cards, or alternatively, users can manually begin their downloads as soon as their off-peak timing kicks in.
Across the board, streaming services offer multiple quality options that correspond with higher or lower data usage per hour, and each service has provided a recommended available download speed for best viewing purposes. It’s important to note that for some services the higher quality 4K streaming is only available on their higher rate/premium plans.
Overall, users that are interested in streaming television and movies from online sources need to be mindful of their data usage, as well as ensuring that their current broadband speed has enough bandwidth to enable a smooth viewing experience. This becomes even more important as the number of members in the household who are using the streaming services increases.
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