Earlier this week, the European Union asked streaming services to reduce video quality to help ease the strain on broadband networks caused by people working from home.
Disney+ will be launching in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland on March 24.
When Disney+ launches, it will launch will 25% reduction in bandwidth quality.
Kevin Mayer, Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer & International confirmed via a statement:
“In line with Disney’s longstanding commitment to act responsibly, we are responding to the request of European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton to work together to ensure the smooth functioning of the broadband infrastructure. In anticipation of high consumer demand for Disney+, we are proactively instituting measures to lower our overall bandwidth utilization by at least 25% in all of the markets launching Disney+ on March 24th.
In the coming days, we will be monitoring Internet congestion and working closely with Internet service providers to further reduce bitrates as necessary to ensure they are not overwhelmed by consumer demand. We look forward to the launch of Disney+ and hope it will provide a much-needed respite for families in these challenging and trying times.”
“To our French fans, the Disney+ service is coming, but at the request of the French government, we have agreed to postpone the launch until Tuesday, 7 April 2020.”
At the moment, we’re unaware what this will actually do in terms of video quality or how long this measure will be in place.