- Research stimates Global TV and Video Teaming Industry accounts for 4% of total global emissions
- This is twice as much as the aviation industry, four times for data center industry
- Nearly 900 million 4K -TVs, a large part of which are large panels are installed all over the world
The global television and video streaming industry has become a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions that surpass aviation and data centers, according to a new report released by Interdigital in connection with the FuturesSource market survey company.
The report examines the industry’s carbon footprint from production to consumption, and found that the streaming industry now emits twice the carbon emissions in the flight sector and four times for the data center’s industry.
This effect is driven by increasing demand for entertainment, video communication services and the widespread adoption of devices such as 4K -TVs and smartphones.
Streaming events are affecting
TVs generated an estimated 54 million tonnes of CO2 in 2024, as the report says, can be compared to the annual emissions of 11.7 million cars. There are now 2.2 billion TVs globally, including 858 million 4K TVs (up 18% since 2022) that consumes 1.7 times the energy from standard HD models. Total energy consumption across video devices, including TVs, set-top boxes and smartphones, reached 357TWh in 2024, although this represents a 7% decrease from 2022. Smartphones, however, experienced an increase in energy consumption since 2020.
Big events have a huge influence. Paris -ol in 2024 had an estimated media Carbon Footprint of 602.8 million tonnes, with 1.25 TWH electricity consumed for streaming across TVs, mobile devices and laptops.
Efforts to reduce emissions go ahead, with AI-based brightness adjustment technologies expected to lower TV energy consumption by 15% in 2028. Remote production methods for creating production.
The report calls for industrial collaboration to tackle these challenges, especially for tackling indirect emissions from supply chains and media production. While energy -efficient devices and renewable energy adoption offer roads to reduce emissions, is obviously needed.
“While everyone is aware of the contributions made by the aviation industry to greenhouse gas emissions – account for 2% of all global greenhouse emissions a year – which is not common knowledge is the influence of the TV and video treaming industry. Which is actually, twice as much emissions from the aviation industry, ”said Lionel Oisel, Interdigital’s head of video laboratories.
“It is the whole industry’s responsibility to make changes that will improve the sustainability of the TV and video sector,” Oisel added. “While changes are being made, more can and should be done. Technologies such as PVR have the potential to create significant energy savings even when used for special events such as the Olympics. If this was used universally, the benefits could be huge and a game change to the industry could . ”
