The 2021 Carbon Trust report Carbon impact of video streaming estimated that one hour of video streaming emitting a total of 50-60g of Co2. Petrol cars emit many times that amount but the climate emergency is such that M&E needs to do more to eliminate carbon in the system.
There are multiple carbon cost centres for content, including production itself to processing (compression), delivery and display (TV, mobile). Most of the current carbon cost comes from the display side but this poses some awkward questions: How to account for the lifespan of content across multiple services? How do streaming providers control and measure a device they don’t own?
“The efficiency gains of current technologies may be unable to keep pace with growing data demand,” warns Sergio Grce, CEO, iSIZE Technologies. “The industry urgently needs investments in efficient next generation computing and communications technologies, alongside ongoing efforts to decarbonise the electricity supply, if we are to reduce rising energy use and emissions in an impactful way.”
Read the full InBroadcast article here.
