Netflix Inc said it would cut traffic by 25 percent on networks across Europe in a relief measure for Internet service providers (ISPs) experiencing a surge in usage due to government “shelter in place” amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The streaming giant, which has already deployed a way to reduce its traffic on networks in Italy and Spain by one-quarter, on Saturday said it would do the same for the rest of Europe.
Netflix said it would remove the highest bandwidth streams within each resolution category for the next 30 days in Europe, wherein users might notice a slight decrease in video quality within each category.
“Our goal is simple: to maintain the quality of service for our members, while supporting ISPs who are facing unprecedented strain on their networks,” the company said.
Netflix said that it would continue to adhere with normal procedures for all other networks “until and unless they experience issues of their own.”
Netflix had more than 42 million subscribers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East at the end of the first quarter of last year, an exchange filing showed, with the bulk estimated to be in Europe.
Alphabet Inc’s YouTube and Amazon.com Inc joined Netflix in responding to a call by EU Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry Thierry Breton to cut picture quality to prevent overload.
Walt Disney Co’s streaming service Disney+, which is set to launch in Britain and most major European markets tomorrow, has delayed its launch in France by two weeks at the request of the French government.
Anticipating higher consumer demand, the company is instituting measures to “lower our overall bandwidth utilization by at least 25 percent in all of the markets launching Disney+ on March 24th,” said Kevin Mayer, head of Disney’s direct-to-consumer and international business.
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