Twitch in South Korea to downgrade their streams to 720p
On September 28, Twitch released a blog post for the South Korean audience, revealing that the streaming quality for the community will be downgraded to 720p from September 30 onwards.
The Amazon-owned livestreaming platform stated that the cost of operations in South Korea has "continued to rise" and that the situation is likely to remain the same for the "foreseeable future."
To find a solution to the issue, Twitch stated that they'd be readjusting the quality of streams for South Korean viewers:
The new update comes just a few days after Dan Clancy, the platform's president, introduced a revamped streamer payout system. Clancy revealed that the company would replace the 70/30 streamer revenue split with a 50/50 split for selected partnered content creators.
Clancy explained the rationale for the decision, claiming that delivering high-definition content for a streamer airing 200 hour-long streams costs the platform $1,000 per month:
Similar reasoning was provided for the downgrade of streams to 720p for the South Korean audience.
In the FAQ section of the blog post, Twitch stated that they are in compliance with South Korean regulations and requirements and that they are paying all the needed network fees in good faith.
However, as the cost of operations continues to rise, the livestreaming platform "desperately needs" to adopt alternative solutions to continue providing its services in the region:
Twitch commented on how long these changes would last:
The update was shared on the r/LivestreamFail subreddit and quickly became the forum's top post. Redditor u/innoshade mentioned that SK Telecom was "targeting" media platforms like YouTube, Netflix, and Twitch and stated:
Another Redditor said that non-Koreans can still watch
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