Netflix’s picture quality drops by a quarter across Europe, to help alleviate strain on broadband services.
The strain on broadband services over the past week in particular has reportedly seen a 50% rise in internet use as more and more people go into isolation, and are working from home. As a consequence, Netflix had been asked by European officials to lower the default quality of its streaming service to lighten the load on the internet.
Following conversations with said officials, it has now agreed to do so, and for the next 30 days, the default picture quality of Netflix streaming is set to decrease by a quarter. That’s not the drop from high definition to standard definition as the European Commissioner had requested, but something of a half-way house for the time being.
Netflix has been praised for so swiftly responded to the request. Furthermore, users of streaming services are being asked to switch to standard definition where they can, again to lighten the load.
Disney+, separately, launches in the UK next week, and it’ll be interesting to see what surge in demand that brings, and whether similar measures will be requested.
More as we hear it.
Image: BigStock
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