A method and system for controlling the use of dormant capacity for distributing data includes communicating data as part of a regular traffic load through a network having an overall network capacity, determining a dormant capacity of the network based on regular network traffic load, delivering content to a plurality of devices through the network, receiving the data at the plurality of devices, based on receiving the data, measuring an efficiency metric at each of the plurality of devices, communicating the efficiency metric of the devices to a service provider, receiving the efficiency metric at the service provider from the devices, receiving a resource usage report from the network, determining a target throughput for each of the plurality of devices based on the resource usage report and communicating second data to the plurality of devices from a content delivery service based on the target throughput using the dormant capacity.