EU Commissioner Calls on Streaming Services to Switch Streaming Videos From HD to Standard Mode

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EU Commissioner Calls on Streaming Services to Switch Streaming Videos From HD to Standard Mode

By CircleID Reporter
March 19, 2020, 11:37 pm PDT Views: 8,961 Add Comment

European Union Internet Market Commissioner Thierry Breton called on streaming services on Thursday, urging them to switch video quality from high definition to standard mode in order to reduce the increasing strain on bandwidth during COVID-19 pandemic. Following a phone call with the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, Commissioner Breton, said: “Europe and the whole world are facing an unprecedented situation. Governments have taken measures to reduce social interactions to contain the spread of COVID-19 and to encourage remote working and online education. Streaming platforms, telecom operators and users, we all have a joint responsibility to take steps to ensure the smooth functioning of the Internet during the battle against the virus propagation.”

— Netflix said it has already taken steps to adjusts the quality of streams to available network capacity and that it uses a special delivery network that keeps its library closer to users as a way of consuming less bandwidth.

— Let’s #SwitchToStandard: Breton on Wednesday tweeted, asking people and companies to “#SwitchtoStandard definition when HD is not necessary” in order to secure internet access for all.

By CircleID Reporter — CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.
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