Netflix starts 30-day video data diet at EU's request to ensure network availability during coronavirus crisis
- Reference: 1584688146
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/20/netflix_30day_data_diet/
- Source link:
The concern is that with COVID-19 keeping so many people in their homes, extra demand for high-definition video could overload network capacity at a time when so many remote workers depend on data for more serious tasks than catching up on the latest dramas.
"As a result of social distancing measures put in place across Europe to fight the Coronavirus pandemic, the demand for Internet capacity has increased, be it for teleworking, e-learning or entertainment purposes," the EC said in [1]a statement . "This could put networks under strain at a moment when they need to be operational at the best possible level."
Thierry Breton, Internal Market Commissioner for the EC, [2]said he spoke with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings about the situation.
Microsoft, Google, Slack, Zoom et al struggling to deal with a spike in remote tools thanks to coronavirus [3]READ MORE
"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," said Breton.
In a statement emailed to The Register , Netflix said it will comply. "Following the discussions between Commissioner Thierry Breton and Reed Hastings – and given the extraordinary challenges raised by the coronavirus – Netflix has decided to begin reducing bit rates across all our streams in Europe for 30 days," a company spokesperson said.
"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."
Netflix has started implementing its data-saving measures but The Register understands that it may take a few days before European customers see the impact.
Netflix customers elsewhere [4]can make that choice themselves, turning Ultra HD (25 Mbps) or HD streams (5 Mbps) into SD streams (3 Mbps), if they wish.
EU network operators have acknowledged increased demand for data but not enough to cause slowdowns or outages, regulators state. Even so, the EC says it's working with the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC) to set up a data usage reporting system to alert operators and regulators to potential network capacity issues.
The EC announcement follows efforts by telecom services in member states to moderate customers' hunger for data. On Sunday, a group of telecom companies in Spain issued [5]a joint statement [PDF] calling on customers to use communication networks responsibly.
The companies, including Orange, MasMovil, Telefonica, and Vodafone, along others, ask customers to prioritize tele-work applications during the day and to shift usage of streaming video and gaming to off-peak hours. IP networks, they said, are experiencing an almost 40 per cent increase in traffic.
Heficed, a London-based network infrastructure provider, claims that demand for internet servers among its customers is up at least 30 per cent due to network usage changes following from COVID-19. Nonetheless, there are doubts that increased data demand arising from viral behavioral changes will lead to network problems.
Last week, global network service provider Cloudflare [6]said internet traffic in Italy from March 5 through March 12 rose 30 per cent. And people there are also using the internet in different ways.
Cloudflare said online chat systems are seeing 1.3x to 3x normal usage while video streaming has more or less doubled. And news websites are seeing 30 to 60 per cent more traffic, with online gaming up about 20 per cent. No doubt some other sites of a more adult nature were also seeing a rise, but Cloudflare was too tasteful to point that out.
In a recent [7]analysis published via LinkedIn, Gaël Hernández, senior manager of interconnection policy and regulatory affairs at Packet Clearing House (PCH), suggested that a traffic bottleneck due appears to be unlikely given current network capacity. [8]DE-CIX Frankfurt's switching platform, he observed, has a capacity of 54.1 Tbps, about 9x more than peak traffic last week.
Cloudflare also said the traffic surge doesn't really raise concerns. "Cloudflare's network is well provisioned to handle significant spikes in traffic," the biz said. "We have not seen, and do not anticipate, any impact on our network's performance, reliability, or security globally." ®
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/MEX_20_489
[2] https://twitter.com/ThierryBreton/status/1240353171748331523?s=20
[3] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/12/remote_work_struggles/
[4] https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306
[5] https://www.telefonica.com/documents/23283/145808651/ndp-usoresponsable-redes.pdf/3cd5d487-f35e-ba1e-0c61-1a0d80b24b49
[6] https://blog.cloudflare.com/covid-19-impacts-on-internet-traffic-seattle-italy-and-south-korea/
[7] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/snapshot-impact-covid-19-internet-traffic-levels-europe-hern%25C3%25A1ndez/
[8] https://www.de-cix.net/en/locations/germany/frankfurt/statistics
Because at home, I can have a spreadsheet on one monitor and Netflix the another. Not something I can do at the office.
@katrinab
Then don't do that. While you are being paid to work, work.
You are so clever.
You just realised you can post that response to all 300 million people plus working in the EU area, and convince them to obey you?
Re: You are so clever.
There's a pandemic happening, it's real. What you've pretty much said is that everyone is stupid, has no self control, and can't use resources sensibly. I know we've seen panic buying of toilet roll and tinned goods, but really, do you need to panic stream Netflix when you're suposed to be working? Somebody else has to manage us, because we can't behave ourselves in a crisis? That we are sheep?
If we can't act sensibly during this crisis we've really quite failed as a society. I have higher expectations of people than you, but feel free to carry on holding those 300 million people in contempt.
Re: You are so clever.
Quite simply, I wouldn't be *ABLE* to focus on a streaming video series/movie and still be able to focus on troubleshooting difficult OpenStack deploys. Of course, having worked remote for a few years now, I've already learned that.
Re: If we can't act sensibly during this crisis we've really quite failed as a society
But we have failed as a society. We are selfish, we raise our kids to be consumers, we elect blithering idiots who can't see farther than their next election, and we are ready to blame all the foreigners for everything we aren't doing right.
Yet, somehow, society endures.
Amazing, isn't it ?
If like my daughter you "worked" in the business travel industry you would appreciate that there is only so much work you can find to do.
..he posted, 9am on a Friday morning when he is probably meant to be working himself.
Perhaps it's because they foresee more people at home looking after children with schools closed, thus increasing streaming load and getting in the way of teleworking.
" Hmm which uses more data, downloading a spreadsheet to pretend I'm doing some work or streaming a video in HD? "
and where do you put "doing video-conference meeting for work with 5 people" ? Same question for school, family assistance...
@Zolko Nobody really needs to video conference, voice only works just fine.
My work video conferencing is not at the resolution where 5 people will match an HD stream. Also we've all turned it off because there's nothing more off-putting than seeing a co-workers face in close up. Saves getting dressed to.
Not actually sure what all the downvotes are for... It's already been stated by ISPs that the data use has increased, but peak usage hasn't - that it just peaks throughout the day, instead of just in the evening.
First they came for ...
... the Cat Videos.
Hey, no fair!
What about my 4K tentacle porn?
Re: What about my 4K tentacle porn?
Just film your own tentacles.
Re: Hey, no fair!
What about my 4K tentacle porn?
Just stare at [1]this (**NSFW**) and pretending it's moving? (who'd have expected tentacle pr0n to go back to 1814? when he wasn't doing pix of Mt Fuji)
[1] https://www.widewalls.ch/japanese-painting/the-dream-of-the-fishermans-wife/
Not having a TV I shall assume this is an opportunity for aerial territorial television --- not using bandwidth --- to flood the airwaves with stupendous programmes of great value and fascinating beauty to smash the streaming networks.
>Not having a TV I shall assume this is an opportunity for aerial territorial television --- not using bandwidth --- to flood the airwaves with stupendous programmes of great value and fascinating beauty to smash the streaming networks.
(Un)fortunately, most TV shows are wrapping up shooting for a period of time until the situation improves. It might be a diet of repeats shortly.
Mainly it's only the repeats that are any good on netflix!
But Netflix has kittehs!
Mainly it's only the repeats that are any good on netflix!
It sometimes has interesting documentaries. Like the odd case of a Canadian who progressed from killing cats to humans, and posted his activities online. Or a new one about the strange case of 'Joe Exotic', a zoo owner who went from tiger breeder to murder-for-hire.
Then again, it also managed to butcher and wokeify the second series of Altered Carbon.
But does this mean a 25% reduction in subscription charges? Or will Netflix (and Amazon) ever find the time to add a 'don't show me ths carp' filter option to screen out stuff I have no interest in watching.
"It might be a diet of repeats shortly."
Shortly?
Well. I'm using a FM (no digital ones yet) radio to avoid to add bandwidth usage to stream the same programmes...
Not having a TV I shall assume this is an opportunity for aerial territorial television --- not using bandwidth
But ever since the switchover to digital TV broadcast, we don't get any signal...
"How many broadcast channels do we have?"
"None"
"None? Did you count them?"
"Yes, twice."
What about the CDN?
It seems like a great idea to be sensible about consuming bandwidth, but I don't understand this measure.
Netflix have a pretty cool CDN (search: Netflix Open Connect) - of which they are very proud. It intelligently caches content very close to the edge at "hundreds of ISPs". So, when you're streaming from Netflix, you're not really streaming over the internet at all - you're streaming from a server in your local exchange.
Is this more about people streaming over mobile networks - where even when the Open Connect server might be in the telco's data centre, there may still be congestion on "the last mile" to the handset?
This is a genuine question. Does anybody know why this is a measure worth taking?
Re: What about the CDN?
No, I imagine they have just done it for laughs.
Re: What about the CDN?
I think this is more about being seen to do something, than the something actually mattering. Streaming services automatically adjust quality depending on bandwidth, so if a household os battering it's Internet connection that's going to happen anyway, and if bandwidth were an issue, I'd expect ISPs to step in and ration all traffic, not just one provider to throttle one source. We'd need all the streaming services to pitch in if we expect endpoints to solve this 'problem' so, NowTV, Prime, iPlayer, all eth freeview catch up services, etc etc.
Re: What about the CDN?
This is a genuine question. Does anybody know why this is a measure worth taking?
Because most broadband networks are sold on a contended basis. Buying a 70Mb connection doesn't guarantee you 70Mb of backhaul from the cabinet to the exchange or from the exchange to the head-end or regional core, which is where CDN and OpenConnect appliances will live. At one time cabinet contention of 25:1 was common, so if 25 of you bought a 30Mb connection, you were sharing 30Mb of capacity out of the cabinet - and just over 1Mb each doesn't go that far these days.
If all the kids are streaming Netflix in UHD, that can impede their teleworking neighbours who are trying to use VOIP, video conferencing or remote desktop infrastructure (or indeed trying to wrangle large files down from company filestores which would normally be on the office LAN). Encouraging Netflix to cap streams at HD (for instance) is eminently sensible.
It's the cabinets and exchanges which are likely to become saturated rather than the IXPs or Network Cores.
Re: What about the CDN?
I'm not sure if the 25 to 1 ratio is correct but it feels like it and it seems to me that other European countries use a much lower ratio.
As others have said it also makes a difference how close Netflix caches are to you.
Re: What about the CDN?
It still clogs the pipes down the lines, as the closer they got to the users, the smaller they are. The "edge" is at the ISPs' edges which may not be very "local", depending on where you live. Many user streaming on lines without enough bandwidth to cope will start to have issues.
Quality
"Netflix will reduce the quality of its streaming videos in Europe”
So they will switch to using content from ITV ?
I don't have Netflix but when i stream on iPlayer and Amazon prime it automatically lowers the quality of the video if the bandwidth can't cope with HD streams, doesn't Netflix do that already? As if it does, then it seem more of a marketing ploy than any real help to say they are reducing the bandwidth by 25%
Reducing bitrate. If bandwidth is the capacity, bitrate is the load. It's better to prevent saturation in the first place than allow automatic measures.
Also, it's a sign of our hedonistic existence that during the first real pandemic in modern times, Netflix availability is a concern!
I live in the boonies in Spain, I have an antenna on the roof that receives from a tower around 6Km away in the nearest village, for about a week now I would say things are about 30% slower than before and YouTube qualityis way down. Too tight to pay for Netflix.
Money back
I hope that Mr. Netflix is reducing the charge for those who are paying for HD but getting only SD quality.
Re: Money back
Yes, I'm sure you need that extra £2 a month to go and hoard more bog rolls...
Re: Money back
I can sell you 10 sheets for £2 if you buy it right now, in cash.
Oh, erm, actually no cash. I will take contactless and pay my taxes for a change.
Re: Money back
That's not the point. Netflix charge a premium for HD viewing...and another premium on top of that for 4K viewing. If they're going to start lowering video quality for people who have specifically paid extra...then surely this is just profiteering at the expense of their customers?
Then, what else is new?
Retransmitted message
1: home network capacity used to be at peak around 7PM IIRC. There should be significant spare headroom on the network during the working day.
2: Netflix already downgrades when bandwidth is limited. The smart move would be to tell Netflix to downgrade more aggressively, on the theory that would allow more “important” traffic to get priority, while still allowing people to watch Netflix (important to keep people from social contact!), and not affecting quality for consumers where ISP capacity isn’t an issue.
3: Allow individual ISPs to break legal agreements and limit Netflix bandwidth from Netflix POPs, if ISPs are having capacity issues.
This seems political, possibly pushed by Netflix so they can sell more subscriptions while having a third party to blame for reducing service levels. Or maybe just knee jerk dumb reactions from politicians - stupidity seems like an option too!?
"There should be significant spare headroom on the network during the working day"
The usage patterns changed a lot. If you look at graphs from peering exchanges, you will see the usage stays very high - higher than it was before even in peak times - between 1100-1900, with peaks between 1300-1900. If you look at historical data, the shape of the curve changed, and it's now more symmetric, no longer showing the higher peak in the evening.
These are, for example, the statistics from the Milan exchange, the largest in Italy, where now most people are mandate to stay at home:
https://www.mix-it.net/en/statistiche/
Ooops.
I guess I shouldn't have downloaded all 37GB of Doom Eternal...
Re: Ooops.
As long as you don't do it again . . .
Less bandwidth
According to French news, Netflix will reduce bandwidth, not resolution.
Will lead to more buffering, I suppose.
Re: Less bandwidth
According to French news, Netflix will reduce bandwidth, not resolution.
Will lead to more buffering, I suppose.
Well, I watch Crunchyroll , so I'm USED to buffering and dropped connections...
Day time TV versus Covid 19
I'll take my chances with the virus
Hmm which uses more data, downloading a spreadsheet to pretend I'm doing some work or streaming a video in HD? I can't really see how everyone working from home is going to put a bigger strain on the network than the most popular night for staying in to Netflix and chill does.