A top European Union official has called on Netflix and other streaming-video services to reduce video quality to standard-definition, forgoing HD for now, so that internet networks don’t get overloaded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton revealed on Wednesday that he has already spoken with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings about the issue, lobbying to have the company switch to SD ‘when HD is not necessary’.
The concern is that with millions of people working from home amid the crisis, broadband networks may get congested. Breton has even tried to get the #SwitchToStandard hashtag going.
A Netflix representative did not indicate whether it would switch to HD by default, and said in the statement to CNN: “Commissioner Breton is right to highlight the importance of ensuring that the internet continues to run smoothly during this critical time. We’ve been focused on network efficiency for many years, including providing our Open Connect service for free to telecommunications companies.”
An SD broadcast consumes 1Gb data per hour, while an HD consumes 3Gb data per hour. Almost all streaming services use an adaptive bit rate (ABR) method for streaming video that by default automatically adjusts to deliver the highest possible quality based on a customer’s current internet connection speed and network conditions. Users also can manually set video quality to lower levels to conserve bandwidth.
Netflix accounted for 12.6% of the total downstream volume of traffic across the entire internet in early 2019, but recently YouTube has eclipsed it in the rankings with up to twice that volume.
Source: Variety
