BBC Publishes White Paper revisiting the energy footprint of broadcast and streaming
Participant Insight Link
27 Nov 2025
The BBC has been a leading player in assessing the energy consumption and emissions of its streaming and broadcast platforms, with the BBC’s early research forming the foundation of the DIMPACT methodology.
This latest article builds on their previous work, applying their sustainability assessment models to explore how the reduction in broadcast television viewing (via digital terrestrial television networks, DTT) will impact energy consumption over time.
This study compares broadcast and streaming, with changing viewing behaviour to IP-based methods. Broadcast television distribution uses one-to-many distribution method, with a relatively fixed energy consumption, making its efficiency dependent on audience size.
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Key messages
- The study confirms the BBC and DIMPACT’s previous work: end-user devices are the hotspot of emissions in the digital media value chain – for both streaming and broadcast television.
- Changes to the distribution method will only result in minor changes in the end-to-end emissions of TV delivery. Given that end-user devices (such as televisions) are shared between distribution methods.
- As viewing shifts towards IP-based streaming and infrastructure, streaming is projected to become more energy-efficient than broadcast within the next decade.
Call to action
- Cross-industry collaboration is critical to close data gaps and align on assumptions, system boundaries, and methodological standards. This is a key part of DIMPACT's mission.
- Scaling up the use of renewable electricity is important to reduce streaming and broadcast emissions over time.
- There remains persistent challenges in methodological alignment and data availability. As highlighted in DIMPACT’s Policy Principles Research Paper, access to robust up-to-date data on the energy consumption of internet networks remains a challenge and point of uncertainty in any digital emissions.