Research from Futuresource and InterDigital estimates that the TV and video streaming industry accounts for 4% of total global emissions – double that of the aviation industry at 2%.
A report released by InterDigital, a mobile and video technology research and development company, and written by leading market research firm Futuresource, says the video industry is rapidly emerging as a major emitter of greenhouse gas.
Solutions like Pixel Value Reduction (PVR) can reap significant energy savings, especially around significant TV events such as the Olympics, the report says.
Spotlight on Sustainability: Towards a greener TV and video value chain, analyzes the carbon footprint created by the video entertainment industry, from the point of production to delivery, and consumption. The paper also examines emerging solutions to mitigate the environmental impact across the video value chain.
One of the biggest challenges for the industry is identified in Scope 3 emissions, which arise from indirect sources such as travel, accommodation, catering and post-production.
However, strides are being made in various areas:
- IP-based remote virtual production, for example, could lower the industry’s carbon footprint by 6x less CO₂ than on-site methods.
- TVs remain the most energy-intensive devices, but investments in AI and brightness-adjustment technologies mean that energy consumption of TVs are set to decline by 15% by 2028.
- Overall energy consumption for video entertainment devices – which includes TVs, set-top boxes, media streamers, gaming consoles, smartphones, and tablets – has declined by 17% since 2020, with another 12% reduction expected by 2028, as older devices are replaced with more energy-efficient.
“It is the responsibility of the entire industry to make changes that will improve the sustainability of the TV and video sector”, said Lionel Oisel, InterDigital’s Head of Video Labs.
“While change is being made, more can and should be done.”
Cost savings and the need for next-generation technologies to meet changing audience demands will drive sustainability strategies for TV and video companies.
The research highlights several ways in which industry is impacting the environment:
- Video as a proportion of all internet traffic continues to rise, with industry estimates placing at 80% of total traffic impacting the CO2 output from data centers.
- Since 2023, each hour of film production has equated to an average of 16.6 tCO2e of carbon, equivalent to the energy consumption of two homes per annum.
- In 2024, an estimated 54 MtCO2e of emissions were generated from TVs: this is roughly equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 11.7 million passenger vehicles.
- Futuresource report that there are now 858 million 4K TVs installed in homes, yet the emissions generated per hour from 4K TVs are around 1.7x that of a 1080 HD TV.
- Major sporting events have a significant impact on the environment: the Paris Olympics had an estimated media carbon footprint of 602.8 million tons, with an estimated 1.25 TWh of electricity consumed because of streaming across televisions, mobile phones and laptops.
