Twitch cuts streaming resolution in South Korea to 720p due to ‘rising costs’

In a blow to gaming in South Korea, a new law has pushed Twitch to lower the maximum resolution of its content.

Twitch has announced it will be cutting the max resolution for Twitch broadcasts down to 720p in South Korea due to rising operating costs.

This decision stems from a new law in South Korea that requires content providers to pay a “delivery fee” to deliver content through Korean internet Service Providers, or ISPs. Essentially, this new law requires platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and Netflix to pay to stream content into South Korea.

Twitch responded by cutting high qualities in South Korea, reducing the quality of all streams to a maximum of 720p. The blog post states that no specific action is needed from streamers or viewers — it will automatically happen.

The company claims that the “cost of providing services continues to rise,” in South Korea, and notes that the company has complied with all local regulations and requirements in the country. Twitch also states that it tested a new type of technology called “peer-to-peer,” or P2P, allowing for original quality streaming from specific Partnered channels.

For those unaware— the tl;dr is that big bandwidth costs that ISPs would pay for, now content providers like Twitch, YouTube, Netflix will pay for instead. Streaming platforms are now being asked to foot the bill instead of ISPs raising internet access fees to meet demand.

— Wolf Schröder (@proxywolf) September 29, 2022

However, the technology is unrefined, and Twitch stated that “it needs to be considered thoroughly before implementing on a large-scale basis.”

Until a fix has been found for P2P, however, all streams will transcode at 720p max starting September 30th, reducing the quality of all streams for all viewers and streamers. Many have taken to Twitter, casting equal amounts of ire at both Twitch and the South Korean government — the former, because Twitch is owned by Amazon, one of the wealthiest companies in the world, and the latter because it isn’t just Twitch that will potentially be affected, but several other large streaming platforms.

League of Legends Champions Korea caster Wolf “Wolf” Schröder wrote on Twitter, “Twitch Korea just announced that starting tomorrow, no one in Korea will be able to watch streams at higher than 720p due to new increased costs based on new net laws.

“I expect YouTube and other streaming platforms will follow suit. Can’t believe no one is talking about this.”

He continued, “For those unaware— the tl;dr is that big bandwidth costs that ISPs would pay for, now content providers like Twitch, YouTube, Netflix will pay for instead. Streaming platforms are now being asked to foot the bill instead of ISPs raising internet access fees to meet demand.”

Chris Smith, general manager of esports team 100 Thieves, wrote, “This is INSANE for a whole country situation, not just a one off ISP thing.”

Twitch isn’t short of news either, as a shocking investigation into Twitch discovered that the platform allowed predators to target nearly 280,000 children on Twitch. That news broke the same day that Twitch announced it’d be cutting 20 per cent of revenue from its top earners, enraging streamers that feel like they are being ignored.