Netflix Lowers Video Quality For 30 Days; YouTube, Amazon Prime And Hotstar Next?

With almost all the population of the country working from home due to the lockdown to tackle the Coronavirus spread, internet services in the country are strained like never before. Citing the same, an industry body had earlier requested Netflix to reduce the traffic through its platform. The online streaming service is now planning to do the same by lowering the video quality of its content in India.

Netflix will be lowering the video quality for the next 30 days in the country. The aim is to reduce traffic on mobile as well as broadband networks as the same are being used for other quintessential services during the times of the ongoing pandemic.

Netflix Logo (Representative Image: Reuters)

The catch, however, is that the step might not really impact the video resolution as Netflix users will still be able to stream HD and 4K content. But even with the same video resolution, the image quality would see a drop at lower bitrates. Since Netflix has not announced how much it is lowering the bit rates by, the difference might turn out to be inconsiderable for an average user.

¡°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,¡± said Ken Florance, VP - content delivery, Netflix, 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¡±.

It will, however, have a massive impact on the traffic. Netflix managed to cut down traffic by as much as 25 percent in Europe, where the move was first suggested and carried out. The OTT platform now aims to do the same In India to help lower the strain on the bandwidth.

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Netflix isn't alone

Internet users in India have been increasingly complaining of low Wi-Fi speeds since the lockdown has begun. A possible reason for this is the increased number of devices using the internet at a particular time. Citing this, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has reached out to the OTT platforms with the appeal to minimise their bandwidth use.

The streaming services have not much to lose. If they decide to implement it, the move should not lead to any massive change in the viewing experience of the Indian audience at large. That is also because most of the OTT users in the country stream content in Standard Definition (SD). That holds true for both Netflix, Hotstar as well as Amazon Prime Videos.

Interestingly, almost all these platforms observed a similar a move in Europe. As EU industry official Thierry Breton called on these platforms to reduce streaming quality, the ones mentioned above along with the biggest social media platform Facebook as well as the largest video streaming service YouTube decided to act on the appeal and dropped their video streaming quality.

Being the largest online video streaming platform in India - YouTube should be doing the same here. Since the move holds an industry-wide appeal in good faith, YouTube is expected to follow suit, only it has not announced any such plans as of now. As and when it does, Facebook will also be in line for the same.