No sympathy for moaning ISPs
News that the high numbers of UK web users visiting online video sites is putting a strain on internet service providers (ISPs) doesn’t elicit much sympathy. Without innovative web sites to provide interesting content that people want to access, the whole business of providing high speed internet bandwidth would collapse under their feet.
If ISPs are looking for a source of complaint that might actually resonate with paying subscribers, they should look elsewhere – specifically at streaming video content that starts to play automatically whether you want it to or not - Soccernet and ESPN, you know who you are - slows browser and PC system performance to a crawl, and uses up a fair chunk of monthly download allowance if the site is accessed regularly.
Internet monitor Hitwise suggests that UK user visits to the top 25 online video sites has increased by 178 per cent in the last 12 months, with YouTube and Google Video being the most popular destinations.
OK, so these sites contain the sort of poorly rendered, narcissistic teenage clips and blatant advertising promos that are hardly worth the effort of looking at in the first place. But the fact that web surfers can choose whether to download them or not is their saving grace, and means they are not the real culprit from either the user or ISP perspective.
Much worse is getting a complete load of audio and video garbage delivered to your screen as soon as you click into the URL you are trying to access – having to click to stop rather than click to start is the reverse of how content should be delivered, and we should not be forced to alter default browser settings to stop them playing either.
Will ISPs do anything about the problem? Probably not, bearing in mind that they often make money from hosting the content themselves, or partnering content delivery network providers that do the same, and a lot of spurious video streaming comes from paid-for advertising deals.
Then again, if enough of us complain about our PCs falling over and broadband bandwidth drying up, you never know. Try spamming them for a change, and see what happens.