Netflix said it's received requests from some ISPs in Latin America to reduce its bandwidth, in order to free up network capacity during the coronavirus crisis. As a result, it's started offering telecom operators worldwide a 25 percent cut in bandwidth from its services, as the company is already deploying in Europe.
The streaming service said in a statement that it started reducing bandwidth usage in Spain and Italy first and achieved a 25 percent reduction in network traffic. It's now rolling out the techniques to the rest of Europe this week. Customers will still receive their contracted resolution of SD, HD or UHD, but may experience a very small drop in video quality within that resolution, Netflix said.
To help ISPs experiencing network strain during government-mandated “shelter in place” orders, the company is providing the same 25 percent traffic reduction as in Europe. For other networks, Netflix said it will "stick with our normal procedures - until and unless they experience issues of their own".
