MultiChoice has lowered the streaming resolution of its DStv Now and Showmax mobile apps.<\/p>\n
The company told MyBroadband it wanted to assist ISPs with managing higher bandwidth loads during the COVID-19 coronavirus lockdown period.<\/p>\n
As is the case with many countries around the world, Internet usage in South Africa has spiked<\/strong><\/a> as many citizens work from home and use the Internet for entertainment.<\/p>\n Across the globe, video streaming services have seen a notable increase in demand.<\/p>\n MultiChoice said it therefore wants to reduce data traffic on its services to ease congestion on South Africa’s networks.<\/p>\n The company said it is focussing on mobile traffic in particular and changed the maximum resolution on its mobile apps late last week.<\/p>\n “We\u2019ve limited the maximum resolution<\/span> for both Showmax and DStv Now\u00a0live\u00a0streaming to <\/span>576p on our mobile apps,” MultiChoice said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This means that mobile Showmax and DStv Now users will only be able to watch at this resolution as the maximum.<\/p>\n In normal circumstances, viewers were able to stream DStv Now and Showmax content at a maximum of 720p.<\/p>\n No changes have been made to browser, TV, or decoder-based streaming, but MultiChoice said it is currently busy with other measures and continues to monitor the situation along with locals ISPs.<\/p>\n “If needed, we\u2019ll step in with further traffic reduction measures,” the company said.<\/p>\n MultiChoice’s move follows similar adjustments from Netflix.<\/p>\n After reducing its bitrates in Europe in recent weeks, Netflix confirmed<\/strong><\/a> to MyBroadband it would follow suit for streaming in Africa.<\/p>\n Netflix said it will temporarily reduce its bitrate across South Africa and Africa after 23:59 on 30 March 2020.<\/p>\n Bitrate refers to the number of bits per second transmitted through a network. For streaming, a higher bitrate typically allows for better video quality as more data is streamed per second.<\/p>\n Netflix said it has developed a way to reduce traffic on networks by 25% while maintaining the streaming resolutions, however.<\/p>\n “So consumers should continue to get the quality that comes with their plan \u2013 whether it\u2019s Ultra-High, High, or Standard Definition,” Netflix said.<\/p>\n MultiChoice has lowered the streaming resolutions on its DStv Now and Showmax mobile apps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":280627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[27627,35,475,32140,62312],"class_list":["post-345517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-dstv-now","tag-headline","tag-multichoice","tag-showmax","tag-video-streaming-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345517"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345517"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345529,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345517\/revisions\/345529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Measures<\/h3>\n
Netflix reduces bitrate<\/h3>\n
Now read: Showmax adds live news channels<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"