Poor broadband could see £500MN loss in UK streaming revenue
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 06 August 2021
Broadband networks have rapidly emerged as a fundamental video platform and their importance, and value, to streaming has been revealed in research from FarrPoint which calculates that poor broadband connections could deny UK streaming providers around £546 million in revenue over the next 15 years.
Netflix English Multiple Device 17July2020
In its report the analyst noted that with the minimum requirement to stream video being at least 10 Mbps, according to UK regulator Ofcom, and Office of National Statistics (ONS) data estimating that there are currently more than 180,000 households in the UK that have poor or no broadband at all, about 0.7% of all households, streaming services including Netflix, NOW TV and Amazon Prime stand to lose out on millions.

FarrPoint’s figures highlighted how much of a difference an increase in broadband speed for a small proportion of the population could make to the bottom line of streaming services. Breaking down what it said was untapped streaming revenue in the four nations of the UK, the survey calculated that England had a potential of £355.6 million; Scotland, £90.3 million; Northern Ireland, £51.1 million; and Wales, £48.8 million.

And making reference to Netflix’s recent announcement that it will be allowing users to stream video games for free, FarrPoint’s added that potential additional revenue extends beyond streaming services. Its further calculations show an additional £50 million in the online gaming and other sectors that could be lost by potential customers as a result of poor broadband.