Streaming more sustainable than traveling
When cultural organizations offer livestreams or video on demand (VOD), it means that your online audience doesn’t need to travel to your theater. This saves travel miles and the associated CO₂ emissions. The CO₂ emissions per visitor of a cultural (live) stream are significantly lower than those of audiences attending a performance physically.
This was already evident from research by PHI Factory in collaboration with DEN in 2024. Our latest in-depth research confirms this observation and further analyzes the numbers. This gives us more precise insights into where the environmental impact of online cultural offerings lies and where opportunities exist for further digital sustainability.
The streaming process in six steps
The in-depth research by PHI Factory and DEN examines the climate impact of streaming and video on demand for cultural organizations. These insights come from recent sources on streaming and its CO₂ emissions.
When creating and publishing digital cultural offerings online, six steps are followed: content creation, uploading, encoding, storage, downloading, and finally playback by the audience. For each step, you can read where the environmental impact arises and what possibilities exist for sustainability.
Streaming: where is the environmental impact and how can you make it sustainable?
Content creation
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Content creation
Where emissions occur: Recording images and sound on location and editing. The energy consumption of cameras, microphones, laptops, and rendering processes.
Practical tips: Use energy-efficient hardware. Work on a laptop with an efficient processor and avoid unnecessary visual effects. Opt for a lower resolution where possible, such as 1080p instead of 4K.
Uploading
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Uploading
Where emissions occur: Data traffic of the original (large) files to the platform. Energy consumption and possible real-time encoding during livestreams.
Practical tips: Compress the video before uploading. Preferably use a wired connection or WiFi. Upload during off-peak hours if possible.
Encoding
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Encoding
Where emissions occur: Converting to different file formats and resolutions. This takes place in powerful servers in data centers.
Practical tips: Choose an appropriate resolution. Is your video intended for mobile or social media? Then 720p is sufficient. Preferably choose a European provider that uses renewable energy.
Storage
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Storage
Where emissions occur: Storage of multiple versions in different resolutions and backups.
Practical tips: Delete outdated or rarely viewed files. Limit duplicate backups.
Downloading
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Downloading
Where emissions occur: Data transfer to the viewer. The amount of transferred data and high resolutions determine electricity consumption.
Practical tips: Encourage offline downloads for later use and advise viewers to delete files after watching. Recommend using WiFi instead of mobile data.
The audience
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The audience
Where emissions occur: Playback on the viewer’s device. Energy consumption of smartphones, tablets, laptops, or television screens.
Practical tips: Encourage viewers to watch on a smaller screen and via WiFi. Remind them of the option to disable autoplay on video platforms.
Video on demand more energy-efficient than livestreaming
Livestreaming is estimated to consume three to five times more energy per viewer than video on demand (VOD). VOD, on the other hand, requires more permanent storage capacity, but this consumes less energy than livestreaming.
This difference arises because video fragments in livestreaming are encoded in real-time in data centers into various resolutions. This requires high computational power, as every new minute is processed immediately. Consequently, energy consumption per viewer is higher in livestreaming compared to VOD from a recording. With VOD, the rendering and network process occurs only once.
Top 4 findings from the CO₂ emissions streaming/video on demand 2025 research
- WiFi is more sustainable than mobile internet: A fixed network (like WiFi) consumes less energy than a mobile network. Fixed internet consumes about 0.05 kWh per gigabyte; mobile internet about 0.12 kWh per gigabyte.
- VOD is more energy-efficient than livestreaming: A livestream requires three to five times more energy per viewer than video on demand. This is because every minute of content in livestreaming must be encoded in real-time.
- Online offerings emit less than mobility: During the production of ‘The Shell Trial’ by Nationale Opera & Ballet, only 0.87% of the total CO₂‑emissions originated from the VOD version. Travel by audience and cast caused the most emissions.
- Online audience accounts for the largest share of digital emissions: Of all steps in digital cultural offerings, the most CO₂‑emissions occur with the online audience: playing content on their own devices. This falls under scope 3, or emissions occurring outside the organization. Research at Nationale Opera & Ballet revealed the following distribution: online audience 86%, content creation 6%, downloading 6%, uploading 2%. Encoding and storage have a very limited share in comparison.
Conclusion: Online performances are a sustainable complement to physical venue performances, provided they are produced and distributed efficiently.
Would you like to delve deeper into the numbers and insights from this research?
In this whitepaper, you’ll find the complete follow-up research from 2025. We map out the processes surrounding the uploading and online offering of audiovisual material, including a calculation example and concrete advice to reduce the climate impact of online performances.
This whitepaper is currently not fully digitally accessible.
Encountering issues or need an accessible version? Feel free to contact us, and we’ll assist you.
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