In Europe, Netflix and YouTube will be lowering the quality of their videos to reduce the stress on residential broadband networks caused by the coronavirus pandemic forcing people to stay home. Netflix is reducing bit rates while YouTube is making standard definition the default.
For the next 30 days, Netflix will be reducing the bit rate on video streams, but not the resolution in the EU and UK.
During this period, movies will still be high-definition or ultra-high definition 4K” despite the bit-rate decrease. There are also reports that resolution could be cut, too.
After discussions with a European government official who called for lowered video quality, “Netflix has decided to begin reducing bit rates across all our streams in Europe for 30 days,” Netflix said in a statement quoted by The Verge. “We estimate that this will reduce Netflix traffic on European networks by around 25 percent while also ensuring a good quality service for our members.”
YouTube on the other hand is taking a different approach.
“We are making a commitment to temporarily switch all traffic in the EU to standard definition by default,” YouTube said in a statement quoted by Reuters today. YouTube owner Google told Ars that the change will be in place in the EU and UK for 30 days.
