Disney+ reducing bandwidth as it launches in Europe

Disney’s streaming service Disney+ will be Launching in many European nations this week, but it has agreed to reduce the bandwidth by at least 25% to help reduce internet congestion.

Additionally, Disney will postpone the launch of the service in France following a request of the French regulators.

Kevin Mayer, Chair of Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer & International division released the following statement about the decision to proactively reduce bandwidth.

“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.”

This follows news that Netflix and Youtube would take steps to reduce their bandwidth to help ease the strain on Europe’s internet.

The launch of Disney+ in France was addressed in an additional statement from Mayer:

“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.”

The following countries will be able to access Disney+ beginning March 24: UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Switzerland. As mentioned above, France will come online on April 7.

The primary technique of reducing bitrates will result in the inability of some HD services functioning as intended and will help with preventing lag in the network.

For now this bandwidth restriction by Disney+ only applies to European users.

If you live in one of the European nations that will receive Disney Plus streaming service, let us know if you plan to subscribe in the comments below!