Coronavirus lockdown | Digital companies to cut video-streaming quality to ease network congestion

All companies from the digital industry in India are going to either offer SD content only or default HD and ultra-HD streaming to SD content temporarily to boost cellular networks.

On March 24, Uday Shankar, Chairman - Star & Disney India, organised a virtual meeting with Ambika Khurana (Netflix), Varun Narang (Hotstar). Gaurav Gandhi (Amazon Prime Video), Ajit Mohan (Facebook), Sanjay Gupta (Google), Sudhanshu Vats (Viacom18), NP Singh (Sony), Punit Goenka (Zee), Nikhil Gandhi (Tiktok) and Karan Bedi (MX Player).

The industry leaders unanimously decided to take immediate steps to boost the cellular network for larger national and consumer interest. For the time being, videos on cellular networks will be streamed at bitrates no higher than 480p. The voluntary measures will be in effect until April 14 as of now.

Coronavirus India Lockdown LIVE

The coronavirus pandemic has put the world on lockdown with companies across industries being asked to shut shop. The outbreak is forcing a majority of the global population to stay indoors. This is causing a spike in internet data consumption around the world with countries like Italy and South Korea reporting massive increases.

All companies from digital indistry have decided upon temporarily defaulting HD & ultra-HD streaming to SD content or offering only SD content, at bitrates no higher than 480p on cellular networks until April 14. #IndiaFightsCorona

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

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How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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— Prasar Bharati News Services (@PBNS_India) March 25, 2020

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) earlier requested various OTT platforms to stream videos at SD quality.