News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days. Parent comment

Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by joppy on Friday March 20, 2020 @04:01AM (#22635865)
During a pandemic which has forced a huge number of people to stay at home and is currently crashing the economy and costing hundreds of lives per day, it could help to be a little more sympathetic to measures like this. They might not be perfect, because everyone is having to react so quickly to what is going on, but we can appreciate that this is not a normal event and the vast majority of companies have never planned for it (random ISPs, for example). If this article [1] from Netflix is to be believed, 4K uses five times the bandwidth of HD, and is surely an easy target for something that can be traded off while not affecting people's moral wellbeing too much.

Suffering a video quality decrease would seem a small price to pay for not causing further problems, and perhaps once this is all over, or at least we've stopped flying by the seats of our pants, we can see if people should receive refunds of a few dollars a month.

[1] https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by noir_lord on Friday March 20, 2020 @08:44AM (#22637081)
Couldn't agree more, I have the HD Netflix account and I literally couldn't give a flying fuck if they drop to SD.

I'm far more worried about my mum than whether TV is SD for a month during a global pandemic.

Fuck me people are ridiculous at times.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by kkarakk on Friday March 20, 2020 @11:12AM (#22638155)
It's not either or...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by Cthulhu_ on Friday March 20, 2020 @07:24AM (#22636674)
While in principle I agree that luxuries like Netflix should be secondary to core internet services, at the same time I'm worried about the slippery slope that is net neutrality.

I mean we've had a lot of slippery slopes recently, things like the government Demanding access to location data. I never agreed to share this information with my government. I did not agree to have my ISP or Google or etc to share this data.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by csunbird on Friday March 20, 2020 @05:20AM (#22636188)
Except, people are PAYING for that upgrade.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by hollander on Friday March 20, 2020 @05:36AM (#22636257)
Two or four euros per month. Call the army! I would start a class action suite. /s

This stupid selfish attitude is not helping. Netflix will probably issue a statement that they will refund all those affected. And if you don't like it, downgrade! You probably have plenty of time if this is an issue for you.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by ptx on Friday March 20, 2020 @06:56AM (#22636564)
If two or four euros is so little as to be entirely negligible, and if anyone who would care about throwing such a small amount of money away deserved to be ridiculed, why does Netflix ask for it? They could just let the customer keep the money since it doesn't matter, right? If fact, everyone could just send me this silly sum that doesn't matter and they shouldn't complain about.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by neuronic on Friday March 20, 2020 @11:07AM (#22638106)
Exactly, this is less than a single one of the overpriced Starbucks coffees that those same people probably purchase without spending a single thought on it.

Being empathetic to these measures is the right call, although I do find that much more important for brick & mortar businesses than Netflix.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by csunbird on Friday March 20, 2020 @06:05AM (#22636370)
What I am telling here is, if you are unable to meet the criteria that you are getting paid for, then you need to refund the difference. They are not doing that.

It is not about being selfish here, think more about it.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by VadimPR on Friday March 20, 2020 @06:17AM (#22636419)
It's quite sad to see such an attitude in these difficult times.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by wongarsu on Friday March 20, 2020 @06:30AM (#22636476)
It's not like Netflix is struggling though this pandemic. Their subscriber numbers are probably skyrocketing right now.

Saying "Internet infrastructure can't handle the current load, we have to restrict service" is fine, but you would expect them to do right by the customer. Not announce the cuts via national news outlets, see how much backlash they get and then decide if they should make concessions to their paying customers.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by merb on Friday March 20, 2020 @07:08AM (#22636613)
well it's sad for people to be in favor of netflix. as others pointed out, netflix will probably make a huge amount of money within the timeframe of the virus.

thus reducing the quality for people that PAY for that quality without reducing their invoice is basically a scam. especially because of the pandemic people are short on money. of course people could just downgrade their subscription, unfortunatly some people are not that tech savy as others, so they do not even know what the news is about.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by hollander on Friday March 20, 2020 @08:48AM (#22637115)
NOW NOW NOW!!! WE WANT IT NOW!!! /s

Give them some time! They just decided this.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by throwawaylolx on Friday March 20, 2020 @07:10AM (#22636619)
The attitude of excusing any behavior in a mass panic while shaming those who call out dodgy behavior is only making this entire thing much worse.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by 8fingerlouie on Friday March 20, 2020 @09:48AM (#22637452)
> Two or four euros per month.

Times a million or 10 or 50. Add to that the 25% savings on internet egress, which last I checked was still how commercial internet is financed.

The cost of actually providing the content to the consumers is on the ISP which hosts an Open Connect box.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by mcv on Friday March 20, 2020 @06:38AM (#22636501)
I agree it would make sense for Netflix to give discount to the subscription for the duration of this measure.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by john_alan on Friday March 20, 2020 @05:21AM (#22636194)
You can't fix stupid.

It's amazing how wonderfully liberal and thoughtful people are with other people's money.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days by john_alan on Friday March 20, 2020 @05:20AM (#22636191)
You're so understanding.

I'd like to sell you a subscription service if you're interested?

[ Parent | on HN ]