Why does the EU want Netflix to stream at a lower quality?

With most everyone who can working from home right now, broadband networks have seen huge upticks in the amount of Internet traffic moving through them. Some have expressed concerns that all our teleworking and entertainment streaming during social distancing due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) may be straining these networks too much.

Thierry Breton, the European Union’s commissioner for internal market and services, has a suggestion for reducing that strain. He tweeted Wednesday that he had a conversation with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings about setting all content on the platform to only stream in standard definition.

The default for Netflix’s streaming quality is high-definition, which uses more bandwidth than standard definition. Users can change their settings from high-definition (HD) to standard definition, which Breton is encouraging them to do, but he wants to make it easier by getting Netflix and other streaming platforms to make this a universal setting whenever HD isn’t necessary.