Korea Telecommunications Operators Association Expresses Regret Over Twitch's 'Image Quality Degradation Measures'

KTOA Issues Official Statement on Homepage on the 5th
Official Inquiry into Reasons and Details of the Act

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] The Korea Telecommunications Operators Association (KTOA), a group of telecommunications service providers, issued a statement on its website on the 5th expressing regret to Twitch Korea regarding the video quality reduction measures.

On the 29th of last month, Twitch announced that it would lower the original video quality from a maximum of 1080p to 720p due to increased costs such as network fees, and began implementing this change from the 30th. During this process, complaints from users to their telecom providers surged.

KTOA stated, "Recently, due to your (Twitch's) video quality reduction measures, related complaints have been received at telecom customer centers," adding, "In particular, the unilateral announcement on your company’s website blog without sufficient prior explanation, followed by the implementation of the quality reduction, has resulted in a significant number of complaints being directed to telecom providers, as Twitch users are also users of these telecom services."

They continued, "Therefore, if you could provide detailed reasons and information regarding your video quality reduction measures, we will use this to respond to complaints," emphasizing, "While the decision and responsibility to reduce video quality due to increased operating costs of Twitch services in Korea lies with your company, it is highly regrettable that such measures were implemented while telecom services were being provided smoothly."

Twitch did not specify the exact reasons for the cost increase but is interpreted as a move mindful of the recent legislative discussions on network usage fees in the National Assembly. In a blog notice, Twitch explained, "The costs of operating services in Korea have continuously increased and are expected to continue to do so," adding, "Therefore, new solutions are needed to maintain service operations within Korea."

Recently, seven bills related to network usage fees have been proposed in the National Assembly, with growing calls to mandate global content providers (CPs) that generate excessive traffic to enter into contracts regarding network usage fees with domestic internet service providers (ISPs). While YouTube is leading the opposition, Twitch is also seen as contributing to this trend.