Youtube had reduced the video quality of its streams across Europe last week, concerning the local network might get overloaded. It has confirmed that they will do this for all the regions. Youtube videos now will stream in standard quality by default for at least a month.

Explanation

This seems to be a minor change especially given that users could still be able to watch in high definition. Given the situation, maintaining a connection is critical and it could play an important role to keep people connected especially at a time where everyone is doing work from home.

Recommendation: Youtube Warns More Videos Will Be Removed Than Usual

The use of online streaming services has increased significantly in recent weeks as governments around the world have ordered everyone to stay indoors to limit the spread of COVID-19. Subscriptions for HBO went up by 90%, Disney by over 300%  while Netflix +47%  and Apple TV by 10% also saw major increments.

Providing entertainment to people comes with its challenges and streaming providers offer the best alternatives but also take up huge data load which at this time, at this volume could overload and lead to service disturbance. Netflix and Amazon have been informed by regulators of Europe to lower their network loads. Facebook, therefore, said that it will reduce the quality of the video streams in Europe from this week.

Conclusion

Most people will not even notice that change in the video quality to standard definition but there will be some who will not be happy that they can not watch videos in high definition. If it happens to come to this point Youtube might have to remove the option as the lockdown continues. As of now, you have the option to manually turn on the HD.