- Research estimates The television and global videos industry represents 4% of total global broadcasts
- This is twice the aviation industry, four times greater than the data center industry
- Almost 900 million 4K televisions, a large part of which are large panels, are installed worldwide
The global television and video transmission industry has become a significant taxsence to greenhouse gas broadcasts, exceeding aviation and data centers, according to a new report published by Interdigital together with the Futurasox Market Research firm.
The report examines the carbon footprint of the industry from production to consumption, and discovered that the transmission industry now emits double carbon emissions in the airline sector and four times in the data center industry.
This impact is promoted by the growing entertainment demand, video communication services and the widespread adoption of devices such as 4K televisions and smartphones.
Impact of transmission events
TVs generated approximately 54 million tons of CO2 in 2024, which the report says it is comparable to annual emissions of 11.7 million cars. There are now 2,200 million televisions worldwide, including 858 million 4K televisions (18% more since 2022), which consume 1.7 times the energy of standard HD models. Total energy consumption on video devices, including televisions, established decodifications and smartphones, reached 357TWH in 2024, although this represents a 7% decrease in 2022. However, smartphones saw an increase of 27 % in energy consumption since 2020.
Important events have a great impact. The 2024 Paris Olympic Games had an estimated media carbon footprint of 602.8 million tons, with 1.25 TWH of electricity consumed to transmit on televisions, mobile devices and laptops.
The efforts to reduce emissions advance, with brightness adjustment technologies based on the projected to reduce television energy consumption by 15% by 2028. Remote production methods for content creation have also shown promising, reducing emissions up to six times compared to the traditional site in the traditional production site.
The report requires collaboration throughout the industry to address these challenges, particularly when addressing indirect emissions of supply chains and media production. While energy efficiency devices and renewable energy adoption offer ways to reduce emissions, more additional actions are needed.
“While all are aware of the contributions that the airline industry makes to greenhouse gas emissions, which represent 2% of all global greenhouse emissions per year, which is not common knowledge is the impact is the impact is the impact That has the television and videos transmission industry. In fact, it is twice the emissions of the airline industry, ”said Lionel Oisel, Chief of Interdigital Video Laboratories.
“It is the responsibility of the entire industry to make changes that will improve the sustainability of the TV and video sector,” Oisel added. “While changes are made, they can be made more. Change game for industry.”
