YouTube to Follow Netflix's Lead and Reduce Stream Quality in Europe to Ease Strain on Broadband Networks

[MacRumors]

Following in the footsteps of Netflix, YouTube is reducing the quality of its videos in Europe to reduce the strain on broadband networks caused by an upsurge in home usage following the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reports.

"We are making a commitment to temporarily switch all traffic in the EU to standard definition by default," the company said in a statement.

Standard definition videos are more pixellated and not as sharp as high definition videos, but require less data transmission as a result.

The decision follows news on Thursday that Netflix will comply with a request from the European Union to lower its streaming video quality in Europe to ease network strain from the millions of people working from home. Netflix said it would reduce the bitrate of its streams for 30 days.

Internet traffic has increased with more adults switching to remote working to comply with social distancing measures. With schools closing in many countries, working adults also face the prospect of having to compete for bandwidth with children playing games and watching videos or logging in to e-learning sessions. The launch of Disney+ in Europe next Tuesday, which will offer 4K-resolution content, is unlikely to help matters.

U.K. internet service provider BT told BBC News that its broadband infrastructure has plenty of "headroom" to cope with increased demand as more people stay home due to coronavirus. The company said that since Tuesday, daytime traffic on its network had increased by between 35-60 percent, daytime and evening usage was still much lower than the highest levels it had ever recorded. "The additional load... is well within manageable limits and we have plenty of headroom for it to grow still further," said a BT spokesperson.

Vodafone and TalkTalk, which also provide mobile and broadband services to UK households, gave similar assurances to the BBC despite also seeing increases in web traffic. However, on Tuesday, all U.K. mobile networks suffered severe outages after the number of voice calls rose by 30 per cent and overloaded the system, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers unable to connect calls to people on other mobile networks.

Like Netflix, YouTube has not said whether the bitrate reduction will be implemented in other countries like the United States, but it does not appear that U.S. internet providers have called for such measures at this time.

Article Link: YouTube to Follow Netflix's Lead and Reduce Stream Quality in Europe to Ease Strain on Broadband Networks

 

[Janichsan]

Great. Can't go out, can't meet with friends, TV is basically showing Corona 24/7, and now the internet streaming is **** as well.

 

[Kebabselector]

Good move, no doubt some will cry about it but we know what sort of people they are.

 

[DrGorilla]

Will we be getting a refund on the difference we pay for the UHD?

 

[IPPlanMan]

Good move, no doubt some will cry about it but we know what sort of people they are.

Do you mean the kind of people who want empirical and verifiable proof there’s actually a problem and not just virtue signaling? That sort of people?

 

[timber]

Great. Can't go out, can't meet with friends, TV is basically showing Corona 24/7, and now the internet streaming is **** as well.

On other news just saw that Spanish doctors following Italians were being asked to treat people according to "social worth" and "life expectancy" instead of "first come first served".

I can live with regular YouTube.

 

[cloudyo]

Thank God for VPN.

 

[nickgovier]

.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Do you mean the kind of people who want empirical and verifiable proof there’s actually a problem and not just virtue signaling? That sort of people?

Go to Italy, you will easily find your empirical and verifiable proof.

Stop spreading misinformation, your immorality signaling will kill people.

Coronavirus Update (Live): 130,775,239 Cases and 2,849,547 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Pandemic - Worldometer

Live statistics and coronavirus news tracking the number of confirmed cases, recovered patients, tests, and death toll due to the COVID-19 coronavirus from Wuhan, China. Coronavirus counter with new cases, deaths, and number of tests per 1 Million population. Historical data and info. Daily...

www.worldometers.info

 

[ruka.snow]

It’s not going to make a huge difference to anyone. As long as they don’t think this is a money saving experiment that they can keep using once the issue has passed.

 

[dz5b609]

Good move, no doubt some will cry about it but we know what sort of people they are.

It really isn't, every provider thus far in almost all of the EU countries have come out and said they have plenty of headroom left and there's no real problems.

This is really just some EU-idiot who said something, that just was completely unnecessary, but I guess the EU gets a little tense seeing how irrelevant they are during this crisis, so the start pretending solving problems.

 

[Taraba]

Do you mean the kind of people who want empirical and verifiable proof there’s actually a problem and not just virtue signaling? That sort of people?

You mean people that can’t connect red dotts witout someone giving them step by step explanation.
Many countries in Europe switching over to real-time online education not enough reason for you?
Do you need proof that there is a limit to capacity?
Netflix-quality more important than sustaining education in crisis like this?
Headroom that we had in Europe few days ago is not there any more.

 

[chris4565]

I'm in Germany and (at least now) I can still watch YT content in 4k. Also because YT is saying "by default" that perhaps means that it will be SD by default but you can still get HD (or even higher) if you select it.

 

[norbiu]

It really isn't, every provider thus far in almost all of the EU countries have come out and said they have plenty of headroom left and there's no real problems.

This is really just some EU-idiot who said something, that just was completely unnecessary, but I guess the EU gets a little tense seeing how irrelevant they are during this crisis, so the start pretending solving problems.

Sources?

 

[PickUrPoison]

Sources?

Does making it up in your head (to push your own agenda) count as a source? 😂

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

Will we be getting a refund on the difference we pay for the UHD?

The resolution of the content probably won't change, but the overall quality of the image will be reduced. You might see more MPEG-like artefacts, less contrast. Initially for 30 days so I'm sure you'll live.

 

[globalist]

Go to Italy, you will easily find your empirical and verifiable proof.

Stop spreading misinformation, your immorality signaling will kill people.

View attachment 900078

Coronavirus Update (Live): 130,775,239 Cases and 2,849,547 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Pandemic - Worldometer

Live statistics and coronavirus news tracking the number of confirmed cases, recovered patients, tests, and death toll due to the COVID-19 coronavirus from Wuhan, China. Coronavirus counter with new cases, deaths, and number of tests per 1 Million population. Historical data and info. Daily...

www.worldometers.info

Dude was asking about proof that the internet is at its limits, not proof that Italy's healthcare is.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Gross. But in the current circumstances I can’t really complain

 

[Y014951]

Go to Italy, you will easily find your empirical and verifiable proof.

Stop spreading misinformation, your immorality signaling will kill people.

View attachment 900078

Coronavirus Update (Live): 130,775,239 Cases and 2,849,547 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Pandemic - Worldometer

Live statistics and coronavirus news tracking the number of confirmed cases, recovered patients, tests, and death toll due to the COVID-19 coronavirus from Wuhan, China. Coronavirus counter with new cases, deaths, and number of tests per 1 Million population. Historical data and info. Daily...

www.worldometers.info

I don't mean to pick sides here but I believe IPPlanMan meant that there is no proof that there is a problem with the available bandwith of internet connections in Europe...

 

[Janichsan]

Do you mean the kind of people who want empirical and verifiable proof there’s actually a problem and not just virtue signaling? That sort of people?

Does this look enough like a serious problem for you?

On other news just saw that Spanish doctors following Italians were being asked to treat people according to "social worth" and "life expectancy" instead of "first come first served".

I can live with regular YouTube.

Yeah, I guess you are right. This is rather a perceived problem than a real one.

 

[ChrisMoBro]

The resolution of the content probably won't change, but the overall quality of the image will be reduced. You might see more MPEG-like artefacts, less contrast. Initially for 30 days so I'm sure you'll live.

That would require Netflix to encode all their content again. Makes much more sense to just stop UHD streaming

 

[globalist]

Does this look enough like a serious problem for you?

Dude was asking about proof that the internet is at its limits, not proof that Italy's healthcare is.

 

[mixel]

And yes, reduce the video quality (default). Who gives a crap about video quality if everyone is working from home and need the bandwidth for more important things. This is a good idea.

 

[incoherent_1]

Will we be getting a refund on the difference we pay for the UHD?

Back in the day before their streaming was bulletproof, Netflix refunded after outages — eg down for 30 minutes you get a $2 refund for your troubles. I’d be shocked if they didn’t do something similar here

 

[I7guy]

This is.. Really dumb. Most people spreading the cv19 to their original country have been returning holiday goers.

And yes, reduce the video quality (default). Who gives a crap about video quality if everyone is working from home and need the bandwidth for more important things. This is a good idea.

A great idea. Maybe they should reduce the electricity also to prevent brown-outs. /s