Netflix Lowers Video Quality in India to Reduce Network Stress Amid Pandemic 4i3e4q Entertainment News

It will cut traffic by 25 percent for the next 30 days. 1h3y6d

By Akhil Arora | Updated: 24 March 2020 12:11 IST

Photo Credit: Akhil Arora/Gadgets 360 3n5v4r

Highlights

Video resolution is not affected, only bitrate is
Most people in India stream in SD on phones anyway
Biggest contributor, YouTube, yet to make a move

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Following a request from an industry body, Netflix has decided to lower video quality in India for the next 30 days, to reduce traffic on mobile and broadband networks in the country amid the increased need for Internet services, with more people at home due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Mind you, this doesn't affect the video resolution — you'll still get access to HD and 4K, if you pay for it, but at lower bitrates than before. Netflix says it expects to cut traffic by 25 percent, in line with what it promised in Europe, where the move was made last Friday.

While Hotstar said as much on Monday, noting that most of its s are locked to SD since they are on the ad-ed tier.

On top of that, Netflix is a miniscule portion of the streaming market in India. If anyone should be practising this move here, it's YouTube. Gadgets 360 has reached out to YouTube on multiple occasions, but the video giant hasn't commented. YouTube was one of the platforms alongside Netflix that agreed to lower video quality in Europe.

“Given the crisis, we've developed a way to reduce Netflix's traffic on telecommunications networks by 25 percent while also maintaining the quality of our service,” Netflix's VP of content delivery, Ken Florance, said in a prepared statement. “Consumers should continue to get the quality that comes with their plan, whether it's ultra-high, high- or standard-definition. We believe that this will provide significant relief to congested networks and will be deploying it in India for the next 30 days”.

Can Netflix force Bollywood to reinvent itself? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS. You can also the episode or just hit the play button below.

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