Disney Plus commits to reducing streaming quality in Europe, delays launch in France

[Karlston]

Disney Plus commits to reducing streaming quality in Europe, delays launch in France

Following others like Netflix and Amazon in bitrate reduction

Disney will delay the release of its Disney Plus streaming service in France in accordance with government requests, Reuters is reporting.

 

The streaming service, which was supposed to launch on March 24th, will instead reportedly launch the week of April 7th, according to Disney. That’s two weeks after it was initially set, and two weeks after other European markets will get the streaming service. Disney has not said if people in other countries set to receive Disney Plus, including the UK, will face delays.

 

New subscribers in those regions will see a reduced quality in streaming, however, when the service launches. Disney will “lower our overall bandwidth utilization by at least 25 percent in all of the markets launching Disney Plus on March 24th,” according to Kevin Mayer, head of Disney’s direct-to-consumer division. Other streaming platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV Plus, and YouTube have also committed to reducing video playback streams in order to lessen broadband strain.

 

Broadband strain continues to be a concern globally as more people stay indoors in an attempt to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Nielsen is estimating that people staying home “can lead to almost a 60 percent increase in the amount of content we watch in some cases and potentially more depending on the reasons.”

 

 

Source: Disney Plus commits to reducing streaming quality in Europe, delays launch in France (The Verge)