Disney+ postpones launch, Netflix reduces video quality in times of coronavirus

Coronavirus has now put Disney+ plans in the backburner s they have now indefinitely delayed the launch.

It was to launch in India on March 29 as part of Disney’s India streaming service Hotstar, coinciding with the beginning of this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament which is a major crowd puller.

Ever since the tournament was postponed because of coronavirus scare, Disney officials have also stalled their plans for now. Uday Shankar, president of The Walt Disney Company APAC, and chairman of Star and Disney India, said in a statement: “We recently announced that Disney Plus would launch in India through the Hotstar service in conjunction with beginning of the Indian Premier League cricket season. Given the delay of the season, we have made the decision to briefly pause the roll-out of Disney Plus and will announce a new revised premiere date for the service soon.”

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Earlier, on March 11, Disney+ went live in India. It was taken back after the company declared that they were merely beta testing.

Coronavirus has been having quite an impact on OTT platforms with Netflix also taking some measures given that more number of people are self isolating and are at home. With more people in their homes, there is more consumption of the internet. Thus, Netflix has announced that it will slightly reduce the video quality on its service in Europe for the next 30 days, to reduce the strain on internet service providers.

The video-streaming provider said lowering the picture quality would reduce Netflix data consumption by 25%. But movies will still be high-definition or ultra-high definition 4K. The change will apply to the UK as well as other European countries.