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Ask HN: Why is it good if media companies lower streaming quality?

3 points by marinhero ↗ HN
How is this helpful if the quality of a stream is regulated by the speed of the internet in the spot where the client is? In my understanding, if the local network is busy it will ultimately result in lower speeds, therefore, a "degraded" stream quality.

2 comments

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billconan
you are assuming the bottleneck is network. But there could be other factors that are the bottlenecks.

for example, cost, might be one reason. The bandwidth cost you money. The more people use it, the more money you spend. Like running a gym, you want everybody to have a membership, but You don't want them to actually come to the gym to avoid paying for utilities.

Similarly, recently zoom said their quarterly income will be lower, because they need to invest into infrastructures due to increased usage. You would assume, the more users they have, the more money they make. not necessarily.

dvhh
Bandwidth is not only a bottleneck but also a resource that most company has to pay for.

Also to ensure better streaming quality and availability, the media files have to move to server closer to the client region, depending on trending demands and timezone usage to avoid bottleneck at the delivery stage. Storage is also not a free resource (or server renting space)