At EU request: Netflix, YouTube and Amazon reduce streaming quality

Is Disney + still affected?

March 20, 2020, 5:30 pm Reading time: 1 minute

Pixels of the future: Streaming providers Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube want to reduce the streaming quality of their offers. Reduce data consumption in this way to avoid consuming the bandwidth of many home office workers during the Corona crisis.

During times of corona crisis, many people reasonably stay home and work in home offices. As most schools were cancelled, many children were affected. The result: streaming providers like Netflix are currently experiencing a real boom. This puts pressure on the network.

Netflix follows EU Commission requirements

After several talks between EU Commissioner Thierry Breton and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, it is now certain that Netflix will not only reduce bandwidth during peak hours, It will also reduce the load on the network. The measure was initially applied for 30 days. As the BBC reported, Netflix responded more or less immediately to a request from the European Commission. In Switzerland and Austria, there are discussions about temporarily shutting down streaming providers.

In addition to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube also announced that they will reduce the quality of their offers in the EU market. YouTube told Reuters that all content in Europe will initially be available in SD. The measure will remain open when it comes into effect and if the user can manually improve the quality again. Amazon Prime Video said in a statement to PhoneArena that it has started to reduce video quality in Europe and is communicating with authorities.

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So be prepared for the fact that your series and movies will soon be more pixelated on TV. But Amazon Prime Video and Netflix promise quality is still satisfactory.

In principle, the Federal Network Agency and BSI consider the providers to be in good standing, as announced in their comments to Netzwelt.

Another streaming provider is coming soon: Disney +. Disney has not revealed whether it is also considering reducing the quality of streaming media.