How Much Data Does Streaming A Football Game Use

Here's the $64,000 question when it comes to watching NFL games live on your Verizon jail cell phone — how big a information program will you need to watch live video of full games? Unfortunately, Verizon doesn't accept a clear respond for you at this time — other than, it probably won't cost $64,000.

Tonight's flavor kickoff between Green Bay and New Orleans is one of the games available to view live on your Verizon smartphone using the NFL Mobile app, which Verizon is heavily promoting via Twitter and other advertising avenues. If you already take i of Verizon's smartphones the app will probably work, though you also demand a Verizon Video subscription for an actress $x a calendar month added to whatever information plan you might accept.

Guessing which data plan you lot will demand, of grade, is the all-important monetary question — which could depend entirely on how many games you might want to lookout on your telephone. Since streaming video is about the biggest bandwidth-eating application around, anyone who wants to sentry more than just a few minutes of live action per month should probably first with a baseline judge of having to have Verizon'south highest per-month information plan, which gives you 10 GB of data to piece of work with for $80 per month.

But what if you tin't beget the loftier-terminate program and want to monitor how much data each live-game minute eats up? Unfortunately the answers you get from Verizon Wireless will vary depending on whether you are calling them live, using live chat or trying to decipher the answer via Verizon's web site usage calculator.

On the Verizon Wireless web site nosotros found an interactive information estimator that seemed pretty like shooting fish in a barrel to use — except it'southward unclear whether or not the NFL Mobile app uses high-definition or depression-res video. Either fashion, you are going to chew upward large chunks of data watching your team play live: According to the Verizon tool loftier-res streaming on a smartphone eats up approximately 400 MB per hour, while lo-res simply uses 200 MB per hour.

Verizon Wireless's video usage reckoner, showing that 15 hrs of high res video will eat up 5+ GB of data.

But if yous picket most five games in a month — with each game at roughly 3 hours that means 15 hours of video — yous will swallow upwards five.86 GB of data, according to the Verizon calculator. Merely if you lot call Verizon and inquire the same question, you go a much dissimilar answer: According to the phone rep nosotros talked to, the internal literature on the NFL Mobile app tells them to tell you lot that it merely uses 17 MB per 12 minutes of viewing — a full of 85 MB per hour, much lower than the calculator.

And if you lot inquire the question in an online conversation session — how much data will I need to picket i game — the rep tells you "I practise apologize, but I really cannot say," and so offers to signal you to the online computer.

Our gauge is that nigh cell-phone fans volition use the Verizon NFL Mobile app to watch the popular NFL Network RedZone feature, which switches between in-progress games to bear witness teams about to score or other significant plays. Especially until there is a clearer barometer of how much data you are using while watching, tuning in only to the RedZone might help proceed your data bill from redlining equally well.