By Agnes Bruinsma (MA Student, Department of Communications, University of Vienna)
Watching an episode or film on Netflix or Disney+ may not seem like an activity that could harm the environment. There is no visible waste, no sense of fuel being consumed, and no immediate indication of how much energy is being used. Streaming can therefore seem immaterial. However, in reality, it relies on a complex and highly energy-intensive infrastructure of data centres, cloud computing, and global transmission networks (Marks et al., 2020).
This blogpost examines the environmental impact of video-on-demand (VoD) streaming in the context of media and platform governance. It argues for the need of shifting responsibility from individuals toward platforms and policymakers. While streaming is commonly framed as an issue of individual consumption and behavioural choice, this analysis shows that the ecological impact of streaming is structurally produced and largely governed at the platform level. This leads to broader questions about how VoDs are governed, particularly in relation to power asymmetries, platform governance, and environmental responsibility. Does the environmental impact of streaming rest with individual viewers, who decide what and how much to watch, or with the corporations that design, promote, and profit from streaming platforms?
Individual responsibility
Individual responsibility is often emphasised in discussions about environmental sustainability. People are encouraged to recycle, use public transport, or reduce their consumption of animal products. Similar expectations can also be applied to digital practices, including streaming. Viewers may be advised to watch less, avoid leaving videos playing in the background, or lower streaming quality to reduce energy use.
At the same time, it is essential to consider where responsibility for the environmental impact of streaming should lie. To what extent should it rest with viewers themselves? And how likely is it that people will change their habits, particularly when streaming is closely tied to relaxation and escapism?
As part of a University of Vienna research project, VoD users across Europe were asked to keep a short digital diary for seven days and to complete a survey. The aim was to understand how streaming fits into everyday life, how platform features shape viewing habits, and how often sustainability is considered. For most participants, streaming was not something they associated with environmental impact. When responsibility and behaviour change came up, responsibility was not placed only on users. The survey results showed that respondents viewed responsibility as shared, though they placed greater responsibility on streaming platforms and parent companies. A related pattern emerged in responses about behaviour change. Users’ willingness to change their streaming habits depended largely on convenience, highlighting the role platforms play in shaping behaviour.
The role of streaming platforms
Streaming platforms shape how people watch through interface design, default settings, and features such as autoplay and personalised recommendations. These choices are closely tied to business models that prioritise engagement, retention, and data extraction. They encourage continuous viewing and make high-volume streaming feel normal and effortless.
Although some streaming platforms, such as Netflix, have published Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reports outlining climate and sustainability commitments, these corporate sustainability disclosures often do not translate into changes in everyday platform design or user experience. Environmental responsibility is typically addressed at the infrastructure level, for example, through investments in renewable energy for data centres, while platform design and demand creation remain essentially unchanged. As a result, the environmental costs of streaming are often kept out of sight, and responsibility is frequently framed as a matter of individual behaviour rather than platform design (The Shift Project, 2019).
Regulating streaming platforms
Critics of platform capitalism have shown that platforms concentrate economic and informational power, shape behaviour at scale, and are organised around growth rather than restraint (Srnicek, 2017).
From a governance perspective, this points to the need for effective regulation that addresses how platforms are organised and held accountable. Scholars of platform governance argue that platforms cannot be governed solely by market mechanisms or voluntary commitments, and that public policy has a role in setting standards for transparency, accountability, and power asymmetries between platforms and users (Helberger et al., 2018; Gorwa, 2019).
In the context of VoD streaming, such regulation could take several forms. These might include mandatory and standardised reporting on energy use, limits on environmentally harmful default settings, such as autoplay, or public standards for more sustainable digital service design. Measures like these would shift attention towards the systemic mechanisms through which streaming demand is actively produced and normalised.
At the European level, initiatives such as the European Green Deal set out ambitious strategies for climate neutrality and resource efficiency, and increasingly link digital transformation with environmental objectives. The European digital strategy frames the “twin transitions” of green and digital as complementary goals and highlights energy-efficient digital infrastructure as a priority. In the cultural realm, the Creative Europe programme continues to prioritise sustainability and the digital transition, building on the Green Deal’s aims.
In practice, however, these frameworks do not include binding requirements on energy transparency, platform design, or algorithmic accountability in the digital cultural sector. Much of the emphasis remains on voluntary compliance and stakeholder cooperation, even as the environmental footprint of digital technologies and infrastructures becomes more visible in broader sustainability discussions.
All in all, the environmental impact of streaming cannot be understood through individual behaviour or ethical consumption alone. Sustainability is often discussed in terms of small personal actions, such as recycling properly or avoiding plastic straws, and while these efforts might matter, they have clear limits. Streaming is no exception, as its environmental impact is shaped by platform design, infrastructure, and regulatory choices that most users have little control over. Therefore, the environmental impact of streaming becomes a question of governance rather than personal discipline. Addressing the ecology of convenience, therefore, means shifting responsibility away from consumption alone and towards the platforms and policies that shape how streaming works.
References
European Commission. (2019). The European Green Deal. European Commission.
https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-dea l_en
European Commission. (2024, September 24). Creative Europe in 2025: Focus on green and digital transitions, on strengthening social and economic resilience. European Commission. https://culture.ec.europa.eu/news/creative-europe-in-2025-focus-on-green-and-digital-transit ions-on-strengthening-social-and-economic-resilience
European Commission. (n.d.). Green and digital: Policy to support sustainable digital transformation. European Commission. http://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/green-digital
Gorwa, R. (2019). What is platform governance? Information, Communication & Society, 22(6), 854–871. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1573914
Helberger, N., Pierson, J., & Poell, T. (2018). Governing online platforms: From contested to cooperative responsibility. The Information Society, 34(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2017.1391913
International Energy Agency. (2023). Data centres and data transmission networks. https://www.iea.org/energy-system/buildings/data-centres-and-data-transmission-networks
Istrate, R., Tulus, V., Grass, R. N., et al. (2024). The environmental sustainability of digital content consumption. Nature Communications, 15, Article 3724. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47621-w
Marks, L. U., Clark, J., Livingston, J., Oleksijczuk, D., & Hilderbrand, L. (2020). Streaming media’s environmental impact. Media+Environment, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.1525/001c.17242
Srnicek, N. (2017). Platform capitalism. Polity Press.
The Shift Project. (2019). Climate crisis: The unsustainable use of online video. https://theshiftproject.org/en/publications/unsustainable-use-online-video/
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