Disney’s streaming service, Disney+, will launch across Europe on Tuesday, although it will offer temporarily reduced video quality.
The reduced quality is part of a move by streaming services operating in Europe to reduce the burden on the continent’s broadband networks, as million of Europeans are working from home and streaming movies and TV episodes in a bid to fight boredom.
Reuters reports that the launch of the service in France will be delayed by two weeks at the request of the French government, the company said in a statement on Saturday. Disney+ will launch in the country the week of April 7.
Disney says it had agreed to a European Union request to reduce the quality of their streams to “ensure the smooth functioning of the broadband infrastructure.”
Anticipating higher consumer demand, the company is instituting measures to “lower our overall bandwidth utilization by at least 25 percent in all of the markets launching Disney+ on March 24th,” said Kevin Mayer, head of Disney’s Direct-to-consumer and International business.
Last week, the European Union asked streaming services to consider temporarily reducing their streaming quality to reduce the strain on broadband networks in the region, as millions of Europeans work from home and watch content on streaming services. Apple TV+, Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime are all reducing their streaming quality.
So far, the lower streaming rates are restricted to Europe and are not being implemented in the United States and other countries, as those countries have not yet called upon the streaming services to reduce their data use.
