Who can sit in their home office these days to minimize the risk of contracting themselves or others with the coronavirus? This is accompanied by an immense increase in data transmissions, which are increasingly threatening to overload the network. In order to do its part to prevent this from happening, the streaming provider Netflix has now announced in a statement that it will reduce data traffic across Europe and initially for the next 30 days. But what does this measure mean for customers?
According to a "Forbes" article, this step should result in 25 percent less data flow than normal. This will be achieved by reducing the streaming quality of the content for the coming time. So if you have got used to HD or even UHD resolution, you will sometimes have to practice modesty for at least 30 days.
Reimbursement for premium customers?
It has not yet been communicated whether some users can count on this measure as a result of this measure. Netflix offers its service in three different subscriptions: While users with the basic subscription are only allowed to stream SD content anyway and should therefore not perceive any change in the next few days, the situation is different for the standard and premium subscription. For the former there is a premium of three euros for HD, for a further three euros there is the premium variant with UHD (4K).
The fact that Netflix saw itself under an obligation to respond to the Corona crisis is certainly to some extent due to the appeal by EU Commissioner Thierry Breton. He sees streaming providers like Sky, Amazon Prime or Netflix and their customers as being obliged to do their part to relieve the pressure on the network.