Bell Media has announced it will be lowering the video quality of its streaming service, Crave, on select devices during the COVID-19 pandemic, as internet bandwidth pressure mounts due to heavy usage. The move follows in the footsteps of Netflix, which also announced it would reduce video quality in Canada.
The company told The Canadian Press in a statement, “Crave does plan to temporarily reduce the quality of streams on certain devices.”
According to Crave, its 1080p and 4K streams will be dropped to 720p across the following devices:
While the article mentions 4K streams for Crave, the latter’s website does not mention anything about 4K streaming quality. We’ve reached out to Crave for clarification and will update this article accordingly.
The service launched 1080p video quality for its iPhone and iPad app last April. In the fall of 2018, the company said it was working on a 4K streaming option ‘in the near future’.
Recently, Crave extended its free trial period for new customers to 30 days.
Update: A Bell Media spokesperson responded to iPhone in Canada with the following statement, saying only “Crave has temporarily reduced the quality of streams on some devices.” No other details were provided in regards to 4K streaming.
