Channel 7 · Guides
How fast your broadband needs to be
Last looked over: 14 October 2026 · BritCast TV team
THE GIST
Budget 10 Mbps per HD screen (25 per 4K screen), and judge it by what arrives at the box at viewing time rather than the figure on your bill. A home running two HD screens alongside everyday browsing is fine on 40 Mbps-plus, provided the Wi-Fi actually reaches the telly.
- Test at 8pm from the stick itself; a phone next to the router flatters the result.
- Every extra screen playing at once needs its own share.
- Upload speed hardly matters for watching.
Speeds that work
| Quality | Speed to allow for each screen | Data used in an hour |
|---|---|---|
| SD (old-style) | 5 megabits | roughly a gigabyte |
| HD | 10 megabits | between 1.5 and 3 gigabytes |
| 4K | 25 megabits | between 6 and 8 gigabytes |
Total the screens that play at once and keep some headroom for the rest of the house.
Why your bill is not the whole story
The advertised figure is an average measured at the router. The telly in the back bedroom gets less because of:
- Walls and floors. Wi-Fi can lose two thirds of its speed across a house.
- Evenings. Between roughly 7pm and 11pm the whole street is online.
- Housemates. Game downloads, video calls and cloud backups share the same line.
Testing it properly
- Test on the screen you watch on.
- Test when you watch, ideally a Saturday evening.
- Test three times and believe the worst result.
Far below what you pay for? The buffering guide covers router placement, the 5 GHz band, cables and mesh systems.
People also ask
Will 30 Mbps do?
For one or two HD screens with a strong signal to the TV, yes. For 4K plus a busy household, evenings will be tight.
Can I test speed on a Fire stick?
Two easy ways: the Analiti app from Amazon, or the fast.com website opened in Silk. Run it at a normal viewing hour.