Netflix will reduce your image quality for 30 days for that the Internet is not saturated, as requested by the EU

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%”.

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:

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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.”

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Netflix will reduce your image quality for 30 days for that the Internet is not saturated, as requested by the EU

it was originally published in

Engadget

by
Antonio Sabán

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