Netflix and YouTube are slowing things down in Europe.
As millions of people are stuck at home amid the Coronavirus crisis, the two digital platforms move to reduce the amount of bandwidth consumed in Europe by degrading video quality for their European-based users.
The decision to reduce video quality is currently planned for a 30-day period.
“We estimate that this will reduce Netflix traffic on European networks by around 25% while also ensuring a good quality service for our members,” Netflix said in a statement.
“[We] are making a commitment to temporarily switch all traffic in the EU to standard definition by default,” YouTube said in a statement. “While we have seen only a few usage peaks, we have measures in place to automatically adjust our system to use less network capacity.”
Variety reports that for now, Netflix’s decision applies only in Europe, and isn’t planned for the US or other territories.
