According to Reuters, Netflix has announced that will reduce the bit rate (or bitrate) of your videos in Europe, to what is called for in the European Commission.
Thierry Breton, the european commissioner for Internal Market, spoke yesterday by telephone with Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, who he expressed the need to reduce the image quality to avoid saturation on the Internetin the face of increasing use of data by the confinement of millions of european citizens due to the coronavirus. Representing the Commission, Breton stated that “it is advised to the streaming platforms that offer a standard definition instead of high definition, and cooperate with the telecommunications operators”. That is to say, that the message was intended to all platforms, not only to Netflix.
For the moment, Netflix has not announced how much image quality you lose the end-user in your home, and how it affected the different plans, but they have reported that, with the reduction of bitrate,” estimate that will reduce your traffic in european networks by 25%”.
Important phone conversation with @ReedHastings, CEO of @Netflix
To beat #COVID19we #StayAtHome
Teleworking & streaming help a lot but infrastructures might be in strain.
To secure Internet access for all, let’s #SwitchToStandard definition when HD is not necessary.
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) March 18, 2020
It is not clear how it will be done technically
Netflix has a bit rate associated to each resolution. In the case of videos with 4K resolution, the bit rate is about 15 megabits per second. We have asked the company how it will perform technically, the reduction of bitrate. In principle, the Commission called for a reduction of resolution, and Thierry Breton called for in a tweet that “to ensure the access of Internet to everyone, let’s change it to standard definition where HD is not necessary“.
In the above-mentioned communiqué issued by the European Commission, it sets out the words of Breton:
“Europe and the whole world is facing an unprecedented situation. Governments have taken measures to reduce the social interactions in order to contain the spread of the Covid-19 and promote the work distance and online education. The transmission platforms, the telecommunications operators and the users, we all have a joint responsibility to take measures to ensure the good functioning of the Internet during the battle against the spread of the virus.”
According to Politico, Breton has reacted positively to the announcement of Netflix: “[Reed] Hastings has demonstrated a strong sense of responsibility and solidarity. We will stay in contact to keep together the evolution of the situation.”
it was originally published in
Engadget
by
Antonio Sabán
.
