Netflix, Showmax, Disney+, and YouTube data usage tested

[Jan]

Netflix vs Showmax vs Disney+ vs YouTube — Biggest data munchers

YouTube and Showmax use the least mobile data in their data-saving modes among the five major video streaming services in South Africa. However, Netflix is vastly more efficient than all its competitors in high-quality streaming.

That is according to an analysis of the data consumption of popular video streaming apps conducted by MyBroadband in April 2024.

 

[Dolby]

Regarding the quality, it would be interesting to know whether an AV1 encoded stream & a non encoded AV1 stream are identical, aside for the compression . Are they both 10 bit colour depth?

“All AV1 streams are encoded with 10 bit-depth even if AV1 Main Profile allows both 8 and 10 bit-depth. Almost all movies and TV shows are delivered to Netflix at 10 or higher bit-depth. Using 10-bit encoding can better preserve the creative intent and reduce the chances of artifacts (e.g., banding)”

 

[maumau]

This is phenomenally low for one hour's viewing.

I like it, I like it a lot.

Netflix

192.22MB (less than claimed 300MB)

 

[Superjakes]

How about adding the arse-end of the interwebs, the beloved old Tikkie-Tok to the comparison? The short video format is quite dangerous, as it is a quick time filler for places away from home WiFi, where it eats up data bundles really quickly.

 

[rh1]

Not worried, since I am uncapped.

Not too long ago, whilst on capped lte data, data usage would have been an issue.