Methods of throttling video streaming downloads in burst transmissions to a mobile device are driven by the network client. By knowing various input parameters such as the media bitrate, the current (average) network link bitrate, transceiver state timeout characteristics (e.g., inactivity timers), and power consumption information for various mobile device operating states, the network client can decide the proportion of each repeating burst interval duration to spend in an idle state. From a control parameter and the other input parameters, it can calculate the amount of media data it then needs to request in each burst transmission. Other calculations further inform this decision, such as the relative average power consumption (as compared to staying at a high activity state continuously).