• Cutbacks Netflix will cut video quality in Europe for 30 days
  • Coronavirus in Spain, last minute, Spain reaches 20,000 infected by Covid-19

Starting today, YouTube will reduce the quality of its videos in the European Union to avoid Internet problems for thousands of Europeans, who are locked up at home due to the coronavrius epidemic and have to make video conferences and use their private connection to work, as reported by Reuters.

YouTube is the second company after Netflix that listens to requests from both the European Union and the different European telecommunications companies that have asked them to cut the video quality of their broadcasts to prevent a possible fall of the network. The videos are the content that consumes the most traffic on the Internet.

This move comes after Thierry Breton, EU industry chief, spoke as much to the CEO of Alphabet, Google's parent company Sundar Pichai; and with YouTube CEO Susan Wokcicki. According to information obtained by Reuters, only a few consumption peaks had been detected so far, but they have decided to act to minimize stress on the system.

"We are committed to reducing all European video traffic temporarily to standard definition," Alphabet said in an official statement.

This standard definition to which it refers, at least on paper, would obey the 480p, well below the 1080p that YouTube usually works with. Netflix, for its part, has not chosen to reduce the resolution of the content, but the bit rate, so the image also loses quality, but maintains its 'size' of video.

A multitude of European telephones, from Vodafone and Movistar, also passing through Deutsche Telekom, have reported numerous increases in data consumption in homes as a result of the quarantines declared in several European countries, including Spain.

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