Just last week, YouTube announced that it will be reducing its streaming quality in the EU. Now, it looks like it will be expanding the streaming quality reduction to the rest of the world. This will take place over the coming days.
Bloomberg reports that once this happens, viewers will get their videos streaming in standard definition by default. This means your videos will load in 480p. Fortunately, you’ll still have the option to select 720p or other higher resolutions, but you’ll have to manually pick them.
For now, it doesn’t seem like it has been implemented here just yet. At the time of writing, your default YouTube video resolution still depends on your internet connection. In my case, it’s currently at Full HD on PC.
This does seem unavoidable, considering the COVID-19 pandemic. With everyone staying home, naturally more people around the world, not just in the EU, would look to YouTube for entertainment. But on the bright side, we still do get the option to pick higher resolution videos for now.
It does remain to be seen though if other video streaming services will follow suit, and expand their quality limits to the world. Netflix, Facebook and Instagram also currently have streaming quality limits in Europe.
(Source: Bloomberg)
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