Forget toilet roll, bandwidth is the new ration: Amazon, YouTube also degrade video in Europe to keep 'net running amid coronavirus crunch
- Reference: 1584734227
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/20/amazon_youtube/
- Source link:
Thierry Breton, Internal Market Commissioner for the European Commission, conferred with Netflix CEO Reed Hasting on Thursday, asking that Netflix moderate its data usage by downgrading its video streams from High Definition (HD) to Standard Definition (SD). Netflix [1]agreed to so do , a move expected to cut the amount of data required for Netflix video streams by about 25 per cent.
The concern is that if too many home-bound people view HD videos, internet traffic could exceed network capacity and hinder business connectivity and critical communication during a time of urgent need.
On Friday, Breton praised Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, following a meeting at which they agreed to participate in the data saving plan.
"Millions of Europeans are adapting to social distancing measures thanks to digital platforms, helping them to telework, e-learn and entertain themselves," said Breton in a statement.
Netflix starts 30-day video data diet at EU's request to ensure network availability during coronavirus crisis [2]READ MORE
"I warmly welcome the initiative that Google has taken to preserve the smooth functioning of the Internet during the COVID19 crisis by having YouTube switch all EU traffic to Standard Definition by default."
Google said YouTube plays a role in helping people find authoritative news, learn, and communicate during uncertain times. The company hasn't seen its services overtaxed by unexpected demand.
"While we have seen only a few usage peaks, we have measures in place to automatically adjust our system to use less network capacity," a Google spokesperson said in a statement emailed to The Register . "Following the meeting between Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, YouTube's CEO, Susan Wojcicki, and Commissioner Breton we are making a commitment to temporarily default all traffic in the EU to Standard Definition."
Google's [3]Transparency Report contains a chart of data traffic by product and since the start of the year YouTube usage patterns show a slight decline.
Amazon also said it is cooperating to ensure network availability.
"We support the need for careful management of telecom services to ensure they can handle the increased internet demand with so many people now at home full-time due to COVID-19," an Amazon spokesperson said in an email to The Register .
"Prime Video is working with local authorities and Internet Service Providers where needed to help mitigate any network congestion, including in Europe where we’ve already begun the effort to reduce streaming bitrates whilst maintaining a quality streaming experience for our customers."
Reports suggest other video service providers like the BBC and Disney+ may take similar data conservation steps shortly.
Users of both YouTube and Amazon Prime Video can select video quality in the interfaces for the respective services. [4]For YouTube , the Settings option is on the video pane itself (not the account settings menu). Amazon Prime provides a way to do so through its Android and iOS apps (Settings -> Streaming & Downloading -> Streaming Quality). ®
[1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/20/netflix_30day_data_diet/
[2] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/20/netflix_30day_data_diet/
[3] https://transparencyreport.google.com/traffic/overview?fraction_traffic=start:1577836800000;end:1584489599999;product:21;region:US&lu=fraction_traffic
[4] https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/91449?hl=en
Pornhub have followed suit and will now only be offering one girl one cup.
Kindle
Now takes twice as long to recharge due to an over the air update - this too will protect bandwidth by reducing the number of books I download daily in my enforced boredom.
Why
So what about the customers that are paying more than £2 a month for a decent internet provider, why should we have to endure lower quality video because of the cheap end of the ISP market ?
As to the internet providers that asked for this, stop being a cheapskate and upgrade your networks to cope with 2020-2030 workloads.
Commercial pressures apply to all markets, so if people move away from cheap ISP's that don't invest in their infrastructure, then they have nobody to blame but themselves. The same providers should not have the ability to pull down other services to that of the lowest common denominator.
I guess they don't trust their caches at the network edge to deliver their service ?
Or they do, and this is just virtue signalling to look betterfor the next time they get government probed ....
Bandwidth like Bank Reserves?
Banks only have to hold a certain amount of cash on hand versus what's in deposits. Perhaps ISPs do the same. "100Mbps? We only have 10 on hand." They must count on only a percentage actually using it all at one time. My movies/music are stored locally and consumed on non-windows devices as SMB became a security risk and microsoft wants you to pay up 'Cos Cloud is better.' How's that work with this degradation? I will not be finding out. Not sure it's the people working from home causing the issues. It's the people 'not' working from home but still home. Overall a non-issue. Degraded video vs respirator. I'll take the video.
Re: Bandwidth like Bank Reserves?
They do, kind of. It's called the "Contention Ratio".
They have to assume that not everybody is using 100% of their available bandwidth at all times. Such usage would be completely unsustainable, and the fact is that most of the time a home broadband connection is only using a small fraction of that.
Uptick on torrenting then?
If I understand this correctly, if you pay to stream you can now only get a terrible low def version, but if you torrent the same show you can get the highest def available.
Why am I paying for prime, Netflix, Sky I’d I can download all for free?
Excuse me...
While I continue to enjoy my movies stored locally on my system in full quality during this outbreak.
(And my music in lossless quality, also locally saved.)