Based on your Netflix subscription, you might be able to stream Netflix content in HD quality and in UltraHD. But, now when all of Europe is sitting at home streaming content on Netflix all day long, this might cause giant trouble for the Internet Service Providers.
According to the following CNN article, the number of people streaming content on Netflix in Northern America is causing giant trouble for the networks in use. Normally the traffic during the daytime has been the peak, but now they see a similar amount also in the evenings.
Because of this, Thierry Breton, just tweeted that he has been in contact with the leadership of Netflix in order to fix this before it will cause trouble in Europe as well.
Netflix has already done work to make sure that people only are served videos in the quality they are capable of receiving. But, if the EU succeeds with this, users within the EU might actually be forced to watch content in lower quality than they are capable of and paying for. However, I have my doubts about whether that will actually happen, as that would impact the price people pay for their Netflix subscription.
In other words, this will most likely be about Netflix doing its uttermost at never showing content in better quality than needed, without the users actually noticing that there is a difference in quality. If they will remove the HD-quality entirely it will cause people to demand a lower monthly fee. After all – what is the point of paying for an HD or UltraHD subscription if you cannot actually use it?
Understanding the tweet
The last sentence is what makes it hard to understand. It seems as if the goal is to turn off HD quality when it isn’t needed. Still, many people speak about whether it might be about entirely removing the HD quality when that is needed. We will for sure learn more once decisions are made. If we don’t read about them, we might experience them as we stream Netflix in Europe in the upcoming months.
