With the successful implementation in Europe earlier last week, Netflix Malaysia has also decided to take necessary measures to reduce the video qualities of the shows and movies found on their platform. According to the popular video streaming provider, the change will begin from March 31 to the end of April, a total of 31 days.
The reason for this sudden measure is due to the spike in bandwidth consumption for the past weeks after the announcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia. It was stated by the Malaysia Internet Exchange (MyIX) that the highest peak for Internet traffic was recorded during this time at 532Gbps – this being 32Gbps higher than last year.
Netflix hopes that with the change in the video qualities of its content, it will give a relief for the stress on the Internet network consumption by the overall bandwidth consumption by at least 25% for the next month.
"We just want to make sure viewers can still get the best of experience and at the same time, be responsible to reduce Internet traffic in Malaysia,” a Netflix representative stated during the interview.
There are ongoing debate between whether it is necessary for such implementations and many are also unhappy with this measure as the users are still paying the same price for the HD and UHD video options while the videos are of a decreased picture quality.
However, Netflix has reassured the public that there would be minimal changes to the streams and its users will still be able to watch the videos contents in the resolutions they have paid for. Also, the contents that have been downloaded offline will not be affected by this change.
"We just want to make sure viewers can still get the best of experience and at the same time, be responsible to reduce Internet traffic in Malaysia,” the spokesperson announced.
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