AT&T Reports Netflix Streaming Traffic Boost as People Spend More Time at Home
The coronavirus outbreak has forced most of the nation to spend more time at home, and while most businesses stand to lose traction, Netflix seems to be booming. According to Variety, the streaming service has seen a big boost in traffic as people have been forced to stay at home in efforts to curb the spread of the virus.
Variety reports AT&T’s business update on Monday revealed that Netflix data traffic across its U.S. networks reached record levels on March 20 and 21, though traffic dipped on March 23. According to LightShed Partners, Netflix is on the path to add about 10 million new subscribers, a significantly higher projection than the 7 million the streamer predicted for themselves.
“With the inability to go out to the movies and linear TV reducing content output (no sports, late-night TV curtailed, reality TV shut down, etc), we believe Netflix usage is disproportionately benefiting among streaming video services as they have a steady flow of fresh original content,” LightShed Partners stated.
As it stands, Netflix has enough original content to churn out for the next few months. However, because they have halted their productions across the world, new content may be harder to provide should coronavirus lockdowns go on until later in the year, Variety stated.
Recently, the tech giant took the lead and became the first major streaming platform to reduce streaming quality in Europe in an effort to preserve internet bandwidth. “On Thursday, Netflix said it would temporarily cut video bit rates for the next 30 days in Europe, estimating that it will reduce the company’s traffic on networks in the region by around 25 percent. It didn’t provide details about the level of video quality European customers can expect to see,” Variety reported.
YouTube, Amazon Prime Video and Disney have since followed suit.