In the wake of Netflix, YouTube, Amazon and Apple TV+ all limiting bandwidth of their video streams in Europe, Disney is about to do the same for its upcoming Disney+ streaming service which is scheduled to launch this week across much of the continent.
Kevin Mayer, Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer & International at the Walt Disney Corporation said in a statement that they were responding to a request by the European Union to help ensure the smooth functioning of the broadband infrastructure across the continent.
As a result, they are “proactively instituting measures to lower our overall bandwidth utilisation by at least 25% in all of the markets launching Disney+ on March 24th”. They will also monitor Internet congestion and work closely with Internet service providers to further reduce bitrates as necessary.
They’re going even further in France where, at the request of the French government, Disney has agreed to postpone the launch in that country for two weeks and will now launch it April 7th.
Source: Deadline
