YouTube throttles video quality worldwide for 30 days
Just a couple of days back we reported that YouTube will be reducing its video quality in Europe to reduce the stress on the infrastructure. The company stated that it will be monitoring the global usage and act accordingly in the coming days.
Now, YouTube has decided it will go ahead and throttle the video quality worldwide for 30 days. The decision came after a surge in internet usage as governments around the world ask citizens to stay at home and work from home.
We continue to work closely with governments and network operators around the globe to do our part to minimize stress on the system during this unprecedented situation.
– Google (via Bloomberg)
YouTube will be playing videos at 480p by default from Tuesday. The users will still have an option to increase the quality if they want but they will have to do it manually. This is different from the current system which analyses the speed and bandwidth to select the quality of the video. YouTube is not the only company that has taken such drastic steps. Amazon, Apple, Disney, Facebook, and Netflix all have reduced their streaming quality temporarily in Europe to reduce bandwidth usage.
