A report by InterDigital and Futuresource reveals the industry creates double the emissions of the aviation industry

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Research from Futuresource and InterDigital estimates the TV and video streaming industry accounts for 4% of total global emissions.

This is double that of the aviation industry, at 2%.

The video industry is rapidly emerging as a major emitter of greenhouse gas, according to the report, called Spotlight on Sustainability: Towards a greener TV and video value chain.

Futuresource and InterDigital analysed the carbon footprint created from the point of production to delivery and consumption.

Key Facts

  • 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.
  • The emissions generated per hour from 4K TVs are around 1.7x that of a 1080 HD TV.
  • An estimated 1.25 TWh of electricity was consumed as a result of streaming the Paris Olympics across televisions, mobile phones and laptops.

One of the biggest challenges for the industry comes from emissions from indirect sources such as travel, accommodation, catering, and post-production.

These can be somewhat mitigated against with remote virtual production, for example, which could lower the industry’s carbon footprint by six times less CO₂ than on-site methods.

Furthermore, while TVs remain the most energy-intensive devices, investments in AI and brightness-adjustment technologies mean that energy consumption of TVs are set to decline by 15% by 2028.

On top of this, 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 alternatives.

The report also suggests that sustainable solutions, including Pixel Value Reduction (PVR) technology, could potentially lead to huge energy savings for huge global events such as the Olympics.

PVR technology lowers energy consumption on a device without sacrificing the quality of the video content and experience.

If PVR technology was applied to devices showing the Paris Olympics, around 48 million kWh of energy could have been saved, which is the equivalent of fueling 4,000 homes for a year.

Lionel Oisel, InterDigital head of video labs, said: “It’s the responsibility of the entire industry to make changes that will improve the sustainability of the TV and video sector. While change is being made, more can and should be done. Technologies like PVR have the potential to make significant energy savings, even when applied to special events like the Olympics. If this was applied universally, the benefits could be huge, and a game changer for the industry.”