Lockdown: Streaming platforms suspend HD, ultra-HD services until April 14

With people staying at home during the 21-day lockdown called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the streaming services in India have decided to temporarily suspend HD and ultra-HD services to ensure smooth running of internet services.

The lockdown, a measure taken to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the country, will lead to more traffic on the cellular network infrastructure, a release from the digital industry said post the meeting of key players.

"It was unanimously agreed that as an exceptional measure, all companies will immediately adopt measures, including temporarily defaulting HD and ultra-HD streaming to SD content or offering only SD content, at bitrates no higher than 480p on cellular networks. These voluntary measures will be in effect until April 14. All participants are immediately taking measures, the release said.

The virtual meeting on Tuesday was called by Uday Shankar, Chairman, Star & Disney India and attended by NP Singh (Sony), Sanjay Gupta (Google), Ajit Mohan (Facebook), Sudhanshu Vats (Viacom18), Gaurav Gandhi (Amazon Prime Video), Punit Goenka (Zee), Nikhil Gandhi (Tiktok), Ambika Khurana (Netflix), Karan Bedi (MX Player) and Varun Narang (Hotstar).