Production and consumption of multimedia content on the Internet is rising, fueled by the demand for content from services such as YouTube, Netflix and Facebook video. The Internet is shifting from host-based to content-centric networking. At the same time, users are shifting away from a homogeneous desktop computing environment to using a heterogeneous mix of devices, such as smartphones, tablets and thin clients, all of which allow users to consume data on the move using wireless and cellular data networks. The popularity of these new class of devices has, in turn, increased demand for multimedia content by mobile users. The emergence of rich Internet applications and the widespread adoption and use of High Definition (HD) video has also placed higher pressure on the service providers and the core Internet backbone, forcing service providers to respond to increased bandwidth use in such networks. In my thesis, I aim to provide clarity and insight into the usage of core networking protocols and multimedia consumption on both mobile and wireless networks, as well as the network core. I also present research prototypes for potential solutions to some of the problems caused by the increased multimedia consumption on the Internet.