Apple TV+ reportedly cuts streaming quality in Europe

AppleInsider

Apple appears to be lowering video streaming quality of its Apple TV+ service in Europe at the request of the European Union, following similar moves from streaming platforms like Netflix and YouTube.

Like Netflix and YouTube, Apple TV+ has reportedly cut streaming quality in Europe.

With many more staying at home in Europe due to COVID-19, the number of people using broadband internet services has skyrocketed. To help ease the strain on networks, the EU asked streaming platforms to consider temporarily reducing video quality -- an order that Netflix and YouTube complied with earlier this week.

Now, it appears that Apple is following suit. The Cupertino tech giant seems to be serving videos in lower resolutions and reduced bitrates, 9to5Mac reported on Friday. Compared to other streaming services, the downgrade in quality is being described as "aggressive."

That degradation may be especially noticeable because of Apple TV+'s usual high quality. A report from November indicated that the Apple streaming platform boasted the highest bitrate of any 4K-compatible service on the market.

At this point, it's unclear whether streaming providers will make similar changes in the U.S. or other regions. Broadband usage during business hours in the U.S. has risen 41% in March thus far, according to data from analytics firm OpenVault.

Most U.S. internet providers claim that they are well-prepared for significant spikes, however. As of publication time, neither ISPs or the government have called for any bandwidth-saving measures.

Apple has yet to confirm cuts to video quality in any region.

stuartf

Not reportedly. Has reduced quality

Much more than Prime or Netflix

Previously 4k streams are very poor quality. Somewhere between SD and HD

sapporobabyrtrns

Do they lower the price they are charging as well. 

georgie01

Is this definitely a necessary move? Are any other non-European countries doing this because of network congestion?

lkrupp

Wait. What? Many here are always telling us how far behind the U.S. is in internet coverage and speed. Europe and Asia are miles ahead of the U.S. in this matter, so say the talking heads here and elsewhere. The U.S. is an internet backwater, right? So are you telling me the vaunted European data network can't handle the surge?

apple ][

lkrupp said:

Wait. What? Many here are always telling us how far behind the U.S. is in internet coverage and speed. Europe and Asia are miles ahead of the U.S. in this matter, so say the talking heads here and elsewhere. The U.S. is an internet backwater, right? So are you telling me the vaunted European data network can't handle the surge?

Yep, that's what they say, or so they claim.

Meanwhile, I'm still here streaming and chillin' in lovely 4k. The city is pretty much shut down, but at least the internet is working fine and speeds are normal.

I haven't actually had the time to watch too many movies these past few months, so I guess this is a good time to catch up on my backlog of films and series.

raulcristian

It's true.

I just saw The banker here in Barcelona and it was an awful experience at a very low resolution... not 4K, not even HD, but SD! Really?

After it finished, I tried again and the resolution was much better. I suppose it has to do with the fact that it was about midnight by then. Maybe they reduce quality after dinner (when most people watches films).

riverko

lkrupp said:

Wait. What? Many here are always telling us how far behind the U.S. is in internet coverage and speed. Europe and Asia are miles ahead of the U.S. in this matter, so say the talking heads here and elsewhere. The U.S. is an internet backwater, right? So are you telling me the vaunted European data network can't handle the surge?

well, wait until you people in US really start to take the situation seriously and most of people really stay home without going anywhere, working on VPNs or spending all day watching something on streaming services... than the quality shows...

scartart

lkrupp said:

Wait. What? Many here are always telling us how far behind the U.S. is in internet coverage and speed. Europe and Asia are miles ahead of the U.S. in this matter, so say the talking heads here and elsewhere. The U.S. is an internet backwater, right? So are you telling me the vaunted European data network can't handle the surge?

Possibly because of the good infrastructure there is too much demand for the servers to cope. BT and Virgin Media in the UK have both said they have seen a spike but well within their capacity and not near historical peaks.

I'm sure some countries are affected more than others but they have done it across the whole region.

Marvin

lkrupp said:

Wait. What? Many here are always telling us how far behind the U.S. is in internet coverage and speed. Europe and Asia are miles ahead of the U.S. in this matter, so say the talking heads here and elsewhere. The U.S. is an internet backwater, right? So are you telling me the vaunted European data network can't handle the surge?

It's intended to be a preventative measure to ensure the networks remain stable, especially for emergency services and businesses. Network providers haven't requested this and are saying they have enough capacity. It was a request from the EU to content providers:

https://twitter.com/ThierryBreton/status/1240353171748331523

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/youtube-joins-netflix-limiting-stream-151850442.html

The EU tends to act before thinking and talking to network service providers to find out what their capacity is. Netflix 4k is only 16Mbps and typically broadband is 50Mbps+, plus the streams are adaptive. The network capacity actually seems to be far higher than service providers have led people to believe with their artificial bandwidth and data caps that are magically being waived with little to no impact on their service, even when the load is higher than usual.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/12/coronavirus-could-force-isps-to-abandon-data-caps-forever/

If the networks still have enough capacity when more people are online concurrently, no doubt they'll increase the quality. Some services are just changing the default settings and the users can switch them to higher quality. Netflix has an option to set the data usage even lower manually, which is useful when using capped mobile wifi or tethering:

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/87

The EU always seems to make ass-about-face decisions like requiring hundreds of millions of websites to add cookie banners instead of 5 browser developers to add a banner that behaves the same way on every site. Instead of asking the content providers to lower their quality first, ask the network providers what the situation is and start regulating them to stop ripping people off with artificial restrictions.

jeromec

I live in Paris France and have a 3Gb/s internet connection.
So I turned on the Playback HUD on my Apple TV 4K and here are some results with 4K Dolby Vision or HDR content.
- Dolby Vision still plays as Dolby Vision and HDR10 still plays as HDR10,
- Netflix still streams 4K, but with 17Mbps video+audio average and 25Mbps max (used Altered Carbon S01E01)
- Amazon Prime Video still streams 4K with 19Mbps average and 12.5 Mbps mac (used The Expanse S04E01)
- Apple TV+ streams 720p with 4Mbps average and 6.2Mbps peak (Mythic Quest S01E01) or 540p (1084*542) with 2.7Mbps average and 3.9Mbps peak (For All Mankind S01E01), 1186*496 with 2.7Mbps average and 3.9Mbps for The Banker
- Purchased "iTunes" movies play at maximum bandwidth, 4K, 25Mbps average, 31 Mbps peak for Mission Impossible Fallout

bshank

sapporobabyrtrns said:

Do they lower the price they are charging as well. 

This is part of raising the price on European customers to pay for all those taxes you want to impose on Apple. The customer pays in the end. Hope you enjoy it.

disneylandman

sapporobabyrtrns said:

Do they lower the price they are charging as well. 

You want to lower the price of a service that no one is paying for?  The only people watching AppleTV are the ones that bought an eligible product.  Also, those with the AppleTV HD pay the same price as those with an AppleTV 4K and a 4K TV.  So no, same price if anyone actually subscribed to it.

disneylandman

georgie01 said:

Is this definitely a necessary move? Are any other non-European countries doing this because of network congestion?

Yes it is because now that everyone is working from home, bandwidth is needed for VPN, remote desktop, and Zoom meetings.  More importantly, the bandwidth is needed for hospitals and other emergency services.