The face of home entertainment has forever been changed by streaming services. For a monthly fee, subscribers get access to an entire catalog of films, television series, documentaries, and more that they can watch on a big tv screen or the smaller screens of tablets and phones. The convenience they bring is staggering and thus it is no wonder streaming has exploded in the last decade.

Figure 1. Netflix subscriber growth since inception [1]

Figure 1 details the explosive growth Netflix has experienced, amassing >200 million subscribers in just over 20 years. And Netflix is just one player in the streaming service with many streaming platforms available that have millions of subscribers (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Top streaming services globally in early 2021 [2]

Before we understand the pollution streaming services create, we must first understand how streaming works. Given the many concurrent users and the scope of content, streaming services need data centers to function. Data centers are the backbone of streaming, providing the necessary storage space, computing power, and connectivity needed to host and distribute content globally [3]. Data centers consume huge amounts of power given the massive computations required, estimated at ~200 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2017 which works out to around 1% of global electricity demand [4].

This has led to many flashy headlines about how much pollution watching Netflix creates. According to the New York Post, researchers from the Paris-based Shift Project estimated that watching a half-hour show via an on-demand video app emits 1.6 kilograms of carbon dioxide into the environment — the equivalent of driving almost 4 miles. [5]. While it might seem small, the Guardian notes in their article ‘Streaming’s dirty secret: how viewing Netflix top 10 creates a vast quantity of CO2’, that the carbon footprint can rack up quite quickly. Given Netflix’s top 10 shows generated 6 billion watch minutes (1oo million hours) within their first 28 days, this is equivalent to 800 million miles of travel in a car if we used the Shift Project estimate [6].

Figure 3. Global electricity mix sources [7]

Figure 3 shows the current global electricity mix is dominated by fossil fuels, meaning that the power used in data centers is likely to be from fossil fuels.

Figure 4. Greenhouse gas emissions by electricity sources [8]

The pollution generated by streaming services can be compounded based on the geographic location of data centers. China is the second largest data-center market which uses coal for 67% of energy needs [9]. Given the immense pollutive power of coal as seen in Figure 4, streaming services that utilise Chinese data centers can have significantly higher pollution than countries with cleaner sources of electricity.

However, an IEA report notes that the pollution from streaming services has actually been overstated and the media published widely misleading tidbits. Powered by the global average electricity mix, streaming a 30-minute show on Netflix in 2019 was calculated to release around 18 grams of CO2 equivalent emissions, 90 times less than the original 1.6kg figure from the Shift Project [10]. This discrepancy was noted as stemming from overestimating energy intensity in data centers, resulting in an overstated carbon footprint.

Figure 5. Breakdown of CO2 emissions from an hour of streaming [10]

The IEA also has a nifty tool in the article (https://www.iea.org/commentaries/the-carbon-footprint-of-streaming-video-fact-checking-the-headlines) that allows one to see the rough breakdown of emissions depending on the device, bitrate, and country. The weighted global average works out to 36g from an hour of streaming, slightly over the pollution produced by boiling a kettle (Figure 5). However, this reduced number should not detract from the pollution streaming produces. Data on total streaming minutes per platform is rarely published but a simple calculation shows that the 100 million hours from Netflix’s top 10 generated in 28 days is at least 3,600 tonnes of CO2 (IEA estimate). After including the rest of Netflix’s viewership and viewership from all other streaming platforms, a monthly carbon footprint in the tens of thousands is likely.

Given the many complexities of calculating the carbon footprint of data centers, ranging from sources of electricity to the different power draws of each device and more, it is difficult to ascertain the pollution produced by streaming services. While the number may vary, it is undeniable that streaming does result in carbon emissions among other greenhouse gases during the production of electricity. Thus, the industry needs to shift towards cleaner sources of electricity to reduce their impact on the environment. In this regard, there is positive change happening as cloud giant Switch, which runs three of the world’s top 10 data centers, is planning a solar-powered hub in central Nevada and increasingly data tians are signing contracts to receive dedicated electricity supply from wind and solar farms [11].

Data centers power streaming platforms and while progress is being made towards a ‘greener’ future, the industry is still quite pollutive. So while we all enjoy the entertainment streaming provides, we could try and limit our carbon footprint. Watching on smaller devices, at a lower quality, or even reducing our watch minutes will reduce the processing power/ electricity needed and consequently the pollution generated from electricity generation. Netflix and Chill is a fun slogan to describe modern streaming entertainment but for now, a more apt title to describe the dirty nature of streaming would be Netflix and Swill.

– Lucian T.K.

References

[1] Dean, B. (2021, October 7). Netflix subscriber and Growth Statistics: How Many People Watch Netflix in 2022?Backlinko. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://backlinko.com/netflix-users

[2] Goldstein, D. (2021, May 11). Top streaming services. Mekko Graphics. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://www.mekkographics.com/top-streaming-services/

[3] McCall, D. (2021, September 29). How data centers support an increasingly digital entertainment industry. How Data Centers Support an Increasingly Digital Entertainment Industry | QTS Data Centers. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://www.qtsdatacenters.com/resources/articles/media-content-and-the-data-center

[4] Jones, N. (2018, September 12). How to stop data centres from gobbling up the world’s electricity. Nature News. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06610-y

[5] Sparks, H. (2019, October 28). Why climate change activists are coming for your binge watch. New York Post. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://nypost.com/2019/10/28/why-climate-change-activists-are-coming-for-your-binge-watch/

[6] Sweeney, M. (2021, October 29). Streaming’s dirty secret: How viewing netflix top 10 creates vast quantity of CO2. The Guardian. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/oct/29/streamings-dirty-secret-how-viewing-netflix-top-10-creates-vast-quantity-of-co2

[7] Ritchie, H., Roser, M., & Rosado, P. (2022, October 27). Electricity mix. Our World in Data. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://ourworldindata.org/electricity-mix

[8] Ritchie, H. (2020, February 10). What are the safest and cleanest sources of energy? Our World in Data. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy

[9] Elegant, N. X. (2019, September 19). The Internet Cloud has a dirty secret. Fortune. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://fortune.com/2019/09/18/internet-cloud-server-data-center-energy-consumption-renewable-coal/

[10] Kamiya, G. (2020, December 11). The carbon footprint of streaming video: Fact-checking the headlines – analysis. IEA. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://www.iea.org/commentaries/the-carbon-footprint-of-streaming-video-fact-checking-the-headlines

[11] Pearce, F. (2018, April 3). Energy hogs: Can world’s huge data centers be made more efficient? Yale E360. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://e360.yale.edu/features/energy-hogs-can-huge-data-centers-be-made-more-efficient