A Netflix, YouTube and balloon play announce that they will decrease the Quality do streaming in Brazil during the pandemic of COVID-19, disease caused by new coronavirus. The purpose of the measure, implemented this week, is to avoid network congestion, as more people are at home, either for quarantine or social distancing. 1tl39
In the case of Netflix, the press office informed that the change should take place within two days. In practice, little will change, because the public will continue to have access to high definition content. However, the highest quality display of each service package – Ultra High Definition, High Definition and Standard Definition – will no longer be available.
“If you are particularly attuned to a specific video quality, you may notice a slight decrease in quality at each resolution.”
Netflix announcement
Now at YouTube, the change is already in effect. When the clicks on any video, the platform displays Quality definition (SD), which is the resolution of 480p.
Read the press release from the Google about the subsidiary YouTube, in full:
“We continue to work closely with governments and network operators around the world to minimize system impact during this unprecedented situation. Last week, we announced that we are temporarily displaying YouTube videos in standard definition (SD) quality in the European Union. Given the global nature of this crisis, as of today we expand this change to the entire world.”
A Globe announced that its services streaming will have limited data delivery starting this week. The measure will affect balloon play, G1, Globoesporte.com, GShow e Globosat Play. With this change, 4K and 1080p (Full HD) resolutions will not be available. The objective, according to the company, is to avoid the collapse of the infrastructure.
The measure only affects data traffic, so there are no limits on the number of videos and/or hours watched.
Streaming in Europe h306o
A Netflix and YouTube had already adopted the reduction in Quality do streaming in Europe, where the COVID-19 pandemic is more serious and several countries have decreed confinement as a measure to contain the new coronavirus.
The authorities even appealed to the platforms to help maintain the stability of the internet. That's because the home office and the confinement in Europe, which has become the epicenter of the pandemic, caused an increase in traffic on the networks.
Both Netflix as much as YouTube agreed to reduce the speed of transmission streams for 30 days.
“We developed, tested and deployed a way to reduce Netflix traffic across networks by 25%, starting with Italy and Spain, which were experiencing the biggest impact.”
Ken Florance, Vice President of Content Delivery
Sources: ABC News, Folha de S. Paul, Digital Look e UOL
