Amazon Prime Video To Slow Streaming To Fight Broadband Overload

Amazon's Prime Video, the world's second-largest streaming service, is set to join YouTube and Netflix in reducing the speed of its streams across Europe to make sure broadband networks can handle the surge in usage as millions are confined to their homes. From a report: It is understood that the BBC is discussing whether to implement similar temporary measures for the iPlayer, which has the largest UK audience of any streaming service, along with Disney+, which launches across most of western Europe and the UK next week. An Amazon Prime Video spokesman said: "We support the need for careful management of telecom services to ensure they can handle the increased internet demand, with so many people now at home full-time due to Covid-19. Prime Video is working with local authorities and internet service providers where needed to help mitigate any network congestion, including in Europe, where we've already begun the effort to reduce streaming bitrates while maintaining a quality streaming experience for our customers."

Re:Net Neutrality!

[Anonymous Coward]

Europe's Internet connections are FAR superior to the USA's! We must not let them throttle content! The government must step in and do it!

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Some parts of Europe have great internet. The UK... Doesn't.

Re:

[avandesande]

It's a little known fact that the UK's internet architecture was designed by failed dentists....

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

The most frustrating part is that when in the very few places that fibre is available it's really slow. The only thing available to me is 160/35 and it would cost a few thousand to get installed!

Re:

[Computershack]

The most frustrating part is that when in the very few places that fibre is available it's really slow. The only thing available to me is 160/35 and it would cost a few thousand to get installed!

More lies. I can get 900mbps in rural East Yorkshire via FTTP, I am currently sat here able to get 72mbit via FTTC. Installation cost for FTTP is £50 and prices for phone and FTTP vary between £40 to up to £79 a month for 900mbps, unlimited data.

Re:

[Computershack]

Some parts of Europe have great internet. The UK... Doesn't.

Utter rubbish. The majority of the population of the UK has fibre to the cabinet. In my small town via that I currently get 72mbit, even in villages with a few dozen houses several miles away can get those speeds. KCOM has also installed fibre to the premises in my small rural town too so I can get up to 900mbit.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

72mb is well above average and still shit. FTTP is available in less than 1% of the country and may providers only offer 1-200mb down and low double digits up.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

What exactly is flamebait about this? Even the BBC's OTA stream is low bit rate and not full HD resolution.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Remember when 480p looked amazing?

I still watch stuff at 360p on occasion. And it's good enough for informational purposes like documentaries. It would be an annoying way to watch a movie though

Europe only?

[Jodka]

So why is internet rationing only happening in Europe?

Re:

[myth24601]

Cause... MURICA!!!

Re: Europe only?

[gsdfa]

Will this affect Bittorrent movies on my hard drive??

Re:Europe only?

[EvilSS]

Because that one person who complained about it was in Europe, so that's where they are doing it.

Re:

[Retired ICS]

Because the stupid asshat who decided to run a "critical" service over an "entertainment" network lived in the EU. And apparently the "standard practice" in the EU is to make everyone suffer rather than put the fuckwad in front of a firing squad.

Re: Europe only?

[D-Breaker]

Because in the USA, internet is pre-rationed for your convenience due to the last mile falling apart and never receiving maintenance!

Re:

[Seamoss1]

Funny enough, my speed check was just 966Mbps, same as it was pre Wuflu. American internet sure does suck..

Re:I wonder if suicide rates will skyrocket

[DontBeAMoran]

In both cases, those people are going to say "fuck this".

Re:

[rogoshen1]

The 'coronial' generation will be noted germaphobes. I can't wait.

There's always the Internet Archive

[bobstreo]

Here's the RSS feed of the latest movies added:

http://archive.org/services/co... [archive.org]

Re:

[No Longer an AC]

Archive.org is a great resource that is often overlooked when people look for things.

A couple of weeks ago I saw someone mention "Where Eagles Dare", the 1968 WWII movie and I looked to see if I could watch it. My first attempt showed a number of sites where I could pay to rent or buy it. And then I noticed it was on archive.org.

Why should anyone have to pay to watch a movie that's over 50 years old that starred people that are mostly dead?

Richard Burton died in 1984. Mary Ure died in 1975. Patrick Wymark

but europe is so superior!

[noobiedoobiedo]

for years all we hear is how amazing europe is and how terrible america is but they cant even stream properly!

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

for years all we hear is how amazing europe is and how terrible america is but they cant even stream properly!

Nah, sound to me like these 'Merican companies (Amazon, Netflix) have servers that can't keep up with the demand, so they're blaming someone else!

Re:

[thule]

I was wondering the same thing! Is this just a preemptive over-reaction from politicians or a real issue of capacity? I read a comment from someone on the intereweb where German ISP's rejected Netflix CDN boxes.

Maybe with all the anger over peering a few years back just revealed how much peering we do here in the US.

Re:

[Opportunist]

It smells more like a "Hey, I think we found a way to decrease our monthly bandwidth cost while still being able to milk our customers for the full amount" gambit.

Re:

[newcastlejon]

Try saying that after your first week of self-isolation.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

for years all we hear is how amazing europe is and how terrible america is but they cant even stream properly!

Well, we hear Europeans get 100Mbps for under $20 a month. We never hear how oversubscribed those ISPs are. It could very well be that they are seriously oversubscribed. Or put another way, they have a 10 lane superhighway within their neighbourhood, but a puny 2 lane country road to get to the next city over.

Re: but europe is so superior!

[aRTeeNLCH]

This just goes to show how much politicians understand if modern technology. The internet in Europe is doing fine, with bandwidth to spare: https://www.de-cix.net/en/abou... [de-cix.net]

Amazon Prime is trash

[franzrogar]

I live in Spain, on my laptop with a 4K screen and fast internet I only got crappy 360p videos...

So, unless they plan to reduce them to 144p I see no issue: they will be showing the same shit as they did before.

Re:

[arbiter1]

I used to do Customer support for a CDN. Everyone would always tell me they have "fast internet" i would tell them, "fast within your ISP's network doesn't mean jack when its outside their network"

Re:

[arbiter1]

I would use nicer way of saying it but this isn't paid support so won't sugar coat it.

Convenient excuse for saving costs on bandwidth

[ffkom]

No significant carrier in Europe, and no internet exchange node has yet reported any issues with an "overload" on their infrastructure. This is either complete stupidity, or a clever excuse for video streaming companies to lower their operating costs. There is not even that much of an increase in the traffic statistics, see for example: https://www.de-cix.net/en/loca... [de-cix.net]

Re:

[ffkom]

Netflix pays carriers for network bandwidth. Less bandwidth costs means more profit for them, if subscription numbers/fees stay the same.

Re:

[renzema]

Same thing for the nordic exchanges (Copenhangen, Stockholm, Gothenburg, etc). Bit of a spike last week, but minimal changes. https://www.netnod.se/ix/stati... [netnod.se]

Re: You mean prime is going to stream even slower?

[dsgrntlxmply]

Quite a lot of Netflix streaming is mechanized by cached content servers of several sizes that they provide to ISPs for collocation. Look up Netflix Openconnect. This does not solve the problem of congestion closer to and within the last mile.

moderation

[OrangeTide]

Maybe you can read a book instead of watching videos for 16 hours a day.