Stream videos smarter

Buy ENERGY STAR^® certified streaming equipment to save you money!

Infographic on streaming media

Did you know that how you stream your media could have on impact on your energy bill? No matter how you choose to stream your media, ENERGY STAR can help you to stream smarter with certified digital media players, smart TVs, laptops and tablets. On average, ENERGY STAR certified streaming devices use 25% less energy than standard models.

Canadians love watching videos online – perhaps more than in any other country. Did you know that we spend an average of 22.4 hours per month watching online videos? That is far higher than the U.S. average of 20.4 hours per month or the global average of 14.8 hours. And more and more Canadians are turning to streaming devices to access media. A recent study found that more than 50% of Canadians stream online video more than one hour per day, while 92% of younger Canadians stream video daily.

Benefits of using a digital media player (DMP)

At the same time, new ways to “watch TV” other than cable TV are here, allowing Canadians to stream their media online in a variety of ways. For example, instead of using pay-TV cable or satellite services, many people use a digital media player (DMP), also known as an “over-the-top” (OTT) device, to stream content to their TV sets from the many online streaming services (e.g., Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime). DMPs provide an inexpensive, easy to use, quickly installed method to view content on your television. Plus, they save energy – DMPs use four times less energy than a cable box and 11 times less energy than a computer!

Helpful tips

• Use a tablet. When streaming content to a small screen, consider using a tablet instead of a laptop or desktop. Laptops use four times more energy while desktops uses 15 times more energy than a tablet.
• Smart TVs are a smart choice. When streaming content to a big screen, a smart TV uses the least amount of energy compared to other streaming devices (Use an ENERGY STAR certified smart TV to save more).
• Use game consoles for gaming – not streaming. Use your game console for gaming and leave streaming to other devices. A game console uses 15 times more energy than a DMP and four times more energy than traditional cable/satellite set-top box.

The ENERGY STAR name and symbol are trademarks registered in Canada by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and are administered and promoted by Natural Resources Canada.