Facebook has reduced video playback quality in Europe following in many other video streaming providers footsteps.
Streaming services are being tested at the moment due to the Coronavirus and people working from home and not going to school.
Therefore, the solution has been to reduce the quality of the streaming, this will therefore reduce the data required to transfer the video.
Viewers needn’t worry though as it is very unlikely you will notice the quality changing on Facebook.
However, Amazon, Apple TV+, Disney+ and Netflix will be only be offering reduced streaming quality going forward also.
The change for Facebook will also effect the Instagram platform, which was acquired by Facebook in 2012.
There are several reasons that more data could be used in streaming a video, one of which is the quality of the video, if you are streaming 4K this will take a lot more than 1080p.
Another factor is the bitrate, this is the volume of data streamed per second. If a video has a higher bitrate then it wont be as pixelated, but it does use a lot more data.
Those with a licence for the online streaming platforms, such as Netflix, Apple TV+ or Amazon Prime probably won’t have noticed, but the bitrates have been lowered, this will have no effect on the resolution.
Disney+, soon to enter the UK market, has said it would have “slightly lower bitrates in Europe when the service launches”, this will be on the 24th of March.
BT UK telecoms provider has said they do not expect issues to arise as despite the incline of people working from home, they have experienced higher levels of internet usage without issues.
