Sept. 7, 2023

This paid piece is sponsored by SDN Communications.

Prepping for the start of the NFL season means different things for different people.

For fans, it can mean getting a favorite jersey cleaned and ready. Or maybe it’s making picks in the office fantasy football draft.

For Gary Glissendorf, a network architect with SDN Communications, it means something much different. It means making sure customers will have the bandwidth to stream NFL games without glitches or dropped signals. It means planning for some of the largest viewing days of the year.

SDN Communications prepares for peak demand on its internet backbone, and peak demand coincides with the NFL season. This photo illustration with an NFL file photo on TV shows the SDN server room that distributes TV broadcasts to member companies. Photo: SDN/Wikimedia Commons

While SDN is a business-to-business internet provider, it also provides the internet to its 17 member companies such as Golden West Telecommunications and Alliance Communications. And their customers are streaming more content than ever before.

NFL Sunday Ticket’s move to YouTube will increase demand on SDN network

This year, the NFL regular season kicks off today. The season will look different from the past with Amazon streaming more games and YouTube taking over the Sunday Ticket package previously housed on DirecTV. SDN’s network has to be prepared.

“As internet providers, we have to plan for that peak moment,” Glissendorf said. “In 2022, the peak night for us was Thursday Night Football.”

The NFL began streaming its Thursday night games on Amazon last year. That decision had a significant impact on internet providers everywhere, Glissendorf said, because while a game broadcast with cable or a satellite dish utilizes just one signal into a home — no matter the number of TVs or devices being used — streaming is a different animal.

Each device is streaming a separate signal, multiplying the load on internet connectivity.

“I assume most households that watch the games stream on multiple devices,” Glissendorf said. “Thursday Night Football did impact a lot of people.”

That puts pressure on the internet “backbone” or core, which delivers the highest volume of traffic. Before Amazon began streaming Thursday night games last year, it alerted SDN about the expected increase in demand.

“Their prediction was a 60-gig increase in our network,” Glissendorf said. “We saw an increase of 50 gig, which is pretty close to their estimation.”

Peak internet usage ‘always a moving target’

Before each year, Glissendorf looks at potential usage and makes a prediction for how much additional bandwidth will be needed to allow for the additional streaming needs during things like NFL games. SDN also plans several years ahead to accommodate expected demands.

“Our member companies do the same kind of predicting to accommodate customers,” Glissendorf said.

They might look at a community and estimate how many devices per household will be streaming. To meet the demands, it might mean purchasing new equipment or simply buying more bandwidth from a provider.

For Glissendorf, the planning means staying ahead of internet trends. But some things aren’t always predictable.

“A snowstorm in South Dakota is typically a peak day,” he said. “So our planning may be a little different than other providers.”

The period of peak capacity for SDN’s network runs from Thanksgiving through March, which includes the holidays and cold months when people spend more time inside on their devices.

“There’s always a bump between Thanksgiving and Christmas when everybody buys new gadgets,” he said. “Outside of that, it’s weather or sporting events that drives demand.”

For this coming season, Glissendorf expects YouTube TV’s purchase of the NFL Sunday Ticket package to drive football streaming trends, which means Sundays will compete with Thursdays and snowstorms for peak usage.

“What’s it going to be this year?” he asks. “You have to stay agile and tuned in to what is changing in the world and adjust as needed because it’s always a moving target.”