The EU has asked Netflix to lower its video quality as more people turn to streaming to cope with coronavirus lockdowns.
Netflix typically accounts for roughly 13% of global internet traffic and has been using increasing amounts of bandwidth as the service expands its 4K and HDR content library.
Concerned that a surge in traffic could strain networks when they are most needed, EU regulators persuaded Netflix to temporarily reduce streaming bitrates across Europe in a move intended to cut traffic by about 25%.
A Netflix spokesperson said, “Netflix has decided to begin reducing bit rates across all our streams in Europe for 30 days. We estimate that this will reduce Netflix traffic on European networks by around 25 percent while also ensuring a good quality service for our members.”
“They don’t understand how the internet works”
Several experts criticized the EU’s intervention, arguing that lowering video quality needlessly reduces consumer enjoyment at a time when many rely on streaming for entertainment and connection.
David Clark, a senior research scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and AI Laboratory, told Decrypt that the decision reveals a lack of understanding about how the internet operates. “Unless your goal was to preferentially downgrade entertainment television to make sure something important was getting through, just let the system run because it self-adapts,” Clark said. “There is a lot of ability in the system to absorb demand shock.”
Network operators have also expressed confidence in their ability to handle higher demand.
Broadband provider BT published several points detailing network capacity and usage patterns:
- The UK is one of the world’s most advanced digital economies, so networks are often built with extra capacity to support high-definition streaming, video gaming and other bandwidth-heavy applications. By comparison, online conferencing services and most video calls consume far less bandwidth.
- The UK’s fixed broadband core is designed with significant headroom to support the evening peak in traffic, which is driven by these high-bandwidth applications. The largest evening peak recorded was 17.5 Tb/s, driven by videogame updates and streamed sports.
- Daytime usage during working hours typically averages about 5 Tb/s.
- Since the start of increased remote working, BT has observed weekday daytime traffic rise by 35–60% versus comparable days on the fixed network, peaking at around 7.5 Tb/s.
- Even with that increase, daytime peaks remain roughly half the size of the average evening peak and well below the 17.5 Tb/s the network has proven it can handle.
Virgin Media also reassured customers on its website, saying: “As more people may be working from home at the moment, it’s important to know our network can withstand any increased usage, including peaks throughout the day, in the evenings and at weekends. As usage rises, our existing capacity will be able to take it – but we’ll have a close eye on things and make changes if we need to.”
From the mobile sector, Orange CEO Stéphane Richard told France’s RTL radio that the company’s network is designed “to absorb considerable flows” and expressed confidence in coping with any surge related to isolation measures.
While the EU’s request to Netflix was intended to preserve network stability during a period of unprecedented demand, the decision has provoked debate about whether such interventions are necessary or effective, and whether they unnecessarily reduce the quality of entertainment services at a time when many consumers rely on them for comfort and connection.
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