With the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic around the world, and the enhanced strain on data networks caused by home working and isolation – Disney Plus have announced that they will launch with reduced stream quality to assist in ensuring networks can cope.
Confirming that they’re set to lower bandwidth in order to handle demand, Kevin Mayer of Disney said: “In line with Disney’s longstanding commitment to act responsibly, we are responding to the request of European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton to work together to ensure the smooth functioning of the broadband infrastructure.
“In anticipation of high consumer demand for Disney+, we are proactively instituting measures to lower our overall bandwidth utilisation by at least 25 per cent in all of the markets launching Disney+ on March 24.
“In the coming days, we will be monitoring Internet congestion and working closely with Internet service providers to further reduce bitrates as necessary to ensure they are not overwhelmed by consumer demand. We look forward to the launch of Disney+ and hope it will provide a much-needed respite for families in these challenging and trying times.”
Disney follows fellow streaming networks Netflix, and Amazon Prime in taking this action.
