Netflix fixes outage
March 26, 2020
By Colin Mann
Netflix has fixed a temporary outage that affected some users in the US and Europe during the evening of March 25th, according to the SVoD service.
The website refused to load when users navigated to the site. Problems were also reported by those using the app, although some who were unable to access the website claimed they had done so through other platforms such as the Netflix app on phones or smart TVs.
Tracking website Down Detector flagged problems across the world, largely focused in Europe. The outage came at around 5pm GMT, suggesting that many people – confined to home under social distancing measures – had just finished work or studies and were attempting to access the website.
“Some of our members in the US and Europe were unable to use Netflix via our website for around an hour this morning [PT]. The issue is now fixed and we’re sorry for the inconvenience,” said the company in a statement
Netflix’s status page, which usually indicates whether the company is aware of its site being down, does not include a message indicating whether it is online or not. Instead, it has a message indicating that the coronavirus outbreak means that it could be slow to respond.
“Due to the COVID-19 crisis thousands of our customer support agents are now having to work from home, making it harder to support your calls,” it says. “So we are seeing higher than normal wait times.”
It also reports that the site is no longer running phone help, offering only live chat and online support. “We’re sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your patience,” the message reads.
Netflix is one of a number of SVoD services that has confirmed it is reducing the quality of its streams in an attempt to deal with additional load caused by people working and studying from home during the Coronavirus outbreak. Responding to calls from the European Commission, it said it would drop video quality in Europe in a way that would reduce bandwidth usage by 25 per cent.