MX Player launches 'Data Saver Mode', an initiative to lessen broadband strain in India

With lockdown across India, and work from home being the norm across the country — internet traffic is increasing with more people adhering to social-distancing guidelines during the Covid-19 pandemic. Video streaming is a major source of internet traffic alongside game downloads and 90% of India’s internet traffic is video with an average user consuming more than 11GB / month.

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Amid this outbreak is an unparalleled increase of internet usage, MX Player, the video streaming app, has launched ‘Data Saver Mode’ as an initiative to reduce broadband strain on infrastructure across the country. This mode is now set as the default setting on all mobile devices. This mode restricts its streaming on mobile devices to a lower resolution (480p instead of 1080p).

MX Player has additionally taken steps to reduce bandwidth consumption without affecting user experience. It’s the first Indian OTT to support H.265 (HEVC) transcoding for Live TV and on-demand content. This single achievement has helped nearly half the bandwidth consumption as compared to the earlier used H.264 stream. Further, it has developed a proprietary advanced compression technique that leverages cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence and object recognition to enhance compression.

Due to this improvement, users are now able to get better quality live streams even under poor network conditions with very low buffering and low latency. On an Android mobile, 1 GB on MX Player can stream or download up to six hours of video. Lower data consumption, buffer-free streaming and excellent user controls is what has constantly differentiated MX Player as a platform.

Vivek Jain, COO, MX Player, said, “Considering that majority offices have declared work from home, we understand the impact this will have on network infrastructure. Internet bandwidth is scarce. At such times, it is key that wheels of the economy keep running and all activities can be continued with sufficient bandwidth available. Especially at our scale (175 million users), it is important that we play our part in preserving a smooth functioning of the internet during this crisis. As a result, we have decided to double down on our efforts to provide the best customer experience while conserving bandwidth. I am happy to share that collectively, all our advancements will reduce MX bandwidth consumption by over 70%.”

With an advertising-led model for premium content, the platform integrates its offline video playing capabilities with a wide library of streaming video content including originals, movies, web series, TV shows, news, music and games. It currently has more than 175M monthly active users and 75M daily active users in the country.

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