InterDigital publishes white paper on the importance of sustainability as the energy footprint of the video entertainment industry grows
Sponsored Content
Published: January 20, 2021
InterDigital publishes white paper on the importance of sustainability as the energy footprint of the video entertainment industry grows
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> InterDigital publishes white paper on the importance of sustainability as the energy footprint of the video entertainment industry grows
https://www.tvbeurope.com/media-delivery/how-sustainable-is-the-future-of-video-entertainment title=Share via Email class=share-email>
By 2022, video viewing is projected to account for 82 per cent of all internet traffic, according to Cisco's Visual Network Index. Since internet use accounts for up to 4 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions (and quickly rising), that places a considerable amount of responsibility on the video entertainment industry to move to more sustainable practices. InterDigital's new white paper, The Sustainable Future of Video Entertainment, breaks down the most significant contributing factors to the video ecosystem's carbon footprint and highlights the moves businesses can make to reduce their environmental impact.
Created in partnership with Futuresource Consulting, the report analyses the entire video value chain, from production to broadcast and consumption. Among the major considerations are data centres, whose combined power amounts to 416 Terawatts, equivalent to around 3 per cent of all electricity generated annually. While corporations such as Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft have committed to transitioning to 100 per cent renewable energy, efforts to improve the mechanical and electrical infrastructure of data centres are shown to only produce marginal improvements. Real measures to mitigate environmental harm must focus on the move towards IT, explains the InterDigital white paper, by increasing server utilisation and the use of virtualisation for multi-tenancy in data centres.
In the streaming sector, sustainability initiatives should emphasise CDN efficiency, server workloads and optimised network usage, as the white paper makes clear. Hulu employs Amazon Web Services' (AWS) CloudFront CDN to deliver over 75,000 VoD programmes to 32 million subscribers, relocating its video data storage facility to a data centre in Las Vegas running on 100 per cent renewable energy. Meanwhile Netflix invests in carbon offsetting programmes, as its energy consumption far outpaced its user growth in 2019, illustrating the impact of video streaming on the environment. The report notes the importance of transparency in the sector for curtailing this consumption.
On the consumer end, the white paper describes that as devices grow in resolution, so to does their energy consumption; for the 30 million 8K TVs expected to be installed by 2023, energy consumption for video streaming will be 50 per cent higher than the 343 million tablets used worldwide. Initiatives such as Energy Star from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are designed to educate consumers on energy efficiency and could see further acceleration in the post-Trump era.
Looking to the future, 5G presents opportunities for broadcasters to relay live video directly to production studios. A live event that would have previously required eight fixed cameras could instead be covered by four 5G cameras, while production engineers can work from remote studios rather than travelling across the country, thereby offering ample possibilities for increased sustainability. Machine learning and AI provide further potential in their application during video encoding, reducing file sizes and bit rates without sacrificing visual quality, resulting in energy savings in both the data centre and the receiving device.
InterDigital details these emerging solutions and many more in its white paper, outlining an end-to-end approach to sustainability that can make the video entertainment industry a driving force in protecting the planet for future generations.
Download The Sustainable Future of Video Entertainment white paper today.
SubscribeFor more stories like this, and to keep up to date with all our market leading news, features and analysis, sign up to our newsletter here.
Europe Stories
19/12/2025
RT is proud to return to the RDS to support the 2026 Stripe Young Scientist & T...
18/12/2025
Canada's largest indoor arena has transformed its live production capabilities with a full ST 2110 infrastructure and Calrec's compact Argo S console. S...
18/12/2025
Long-term agreement includes the SES SCORE platform and hybrid distribution worldwide to deliver more than 5,000 hours of golf tournaments annually featuring th...
18/12/2025
18 Dec 2025
VEON Upgraded to Nasdaq Global Select Market, Enhancing Investor Visibility Dubai, December 18, 2025 - VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VEON), a global digital o...
18/12/2025
Thursday 18 December 2025
Sky Sports remains the exclusive home of the Masters ...
18/12/2025
Using the additive process of 3D printing, layer after layer gets printed until an object is as close to the final shape needed as possible. Historically, machi...
18/12/2025
In 2025, RT proudly supported 185 arts and cultural events across the island of Ireland, reflecting significant growth since the scheme was re-launched in 2014...
18/12/2025
RT Sports Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
18/12/2025
RT lyric fm presents a very special Winter Solstice edition of Ambient Orbit, l...
18/12/2025
At 7.45pm on 1st January 1926, the precursor to RT , then 2RN, delivered the fledgling new Irish state's first public radio transmission. From those first c...
18/12/2025
December 18 2025, 05:30 (PST) The Movie Experience SLO Becomes First U.S. Exhib...
17/12/2025
Investigative journalists across the Western Balkans and T rkiye continue to con...
17/12/2025
The right playlist is essential on New Year's Eve, building the energy as you get ready and keeping it high as you count down to midnight. This year, Spotif...
17/12/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
17/12/2025
Wuppertal December 17, 2025
Riedel Builds Global Communication and Commentary ...
17/12/2025
December 17 2025, 17:00 (PST) Dolby and LG Unveil a New Era of Home Audio With ...
17/12/2025
Wednesday 17 December 2025
Heated Rivalry will be coming to Sky and streaming service NOW on 10 JanuaryTurn on cookies to view this content. Go to Privacy opti...
17/12/2025
RT has announced that Kathy Fox has been appointed Commissioning Editor with re...
17/12/2025
With the new season of Dancing with the Stars shimmering in the not-too-distant future this New Year, the celebrity and dancer pairings of the twelve couples ha...
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
16/12/2025
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...
16/12/2025
RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December.
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
16/12/2025
Singer -songwriter Brian Kennedy has been announced as the final celebrity dance...
15/12/2025
Cape Town, November 13, 2025 - SES and International artist and humanitarian, Fo...
15/12/2025
Luxembourg, December 15, 2025 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Abra Group launched fast and reliable multi-orbit inflight connectivity service on t...
15/12/2025
15 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan Delivers First Starlink Direct to Cel...
15/12/2025
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor finds himself the topic of year's cracker jokes
Oasis, David Harbour, Celebrity Traitors and Angela Rayner all feature in this y...
15/12/2025
Comscore Expands Cross-Platform Campaign Measurement to Include Audio and Social New capabilities strengthen cross-platform campaign reporting suite; CCR rebran...
15/12/2025
RT .ie has reached one billion page views this year and is on track to finish 2025 2% ahead of last year. Average time spent on the site is up 3% on 2024, with ...
12/12/2025
Last month, Spotify announced a new collaboration with the ATP Tour, the global governing body of men's professional tennis, aimed at bringing the next gene...
12/12/2025
Friday 12 December 2025
Ted is back! Seth MacFarlane's live-action comedic ...
12/12/2025
Uachtar n na h ireann, Catherine Connolly visited RT Raidi na Gaeltachta's...
12/12/2025
Ireland AM host Eric Roberts has been revealed as the sixth contestant taking to...
11/12/2025
Thomson and the Center for News, Technology and Innovation (CNTI) convened a two-day workshop in Sarajevo bringing together more than 35 journalists, editors, p...
11/12/2025
Having the right song soundtrack your moves can make all the difference when gam...
11/12/2025
It's been a big year for Taylor Swift. Her highly anticipated album The Life...
11/12/2025
11 Dec 2025
VEON's Banglalink Receives Regulatory Approval to Launch Digita...
11/12/2025
Thursday 11 December 2025
Sky Arts paints a picture of Britain's beauty as ...
11/12/2025
It's not every day we're asked to create a website for a classical musician!
So, we were delighted to help pianist Georgina Duncan as she embarks on he...
11/12/2025
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Irish golfing hero Shane Lowry...
11/12/2025
RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier ti...
11/12/2025
Sash is ready to samba as Fair City star Stephanie Kelly is revealed as the late...
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
10/12/2025
For the first time, Spotify is giving users the power to steer the algorithm. Gustav S derstr m, Spotify's Co-President, CPO, and CTO, shares the vision beh...
10/12/2025
10 Dec 2025
VEON's Rising Capital Markets Profile Strengthened by Inclusion...
InterDigital publishes white paper on the importance of sustainability as the energy footprint of the video entertainment industry grows
