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As HDR content becomes the new standard of quality among cinephiles and TV addicts, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says the company is committed to ensuring it supports HDR content wherever people are watching Netflix.
Hastings was speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona when he announced that HDR-supported movies and TV shows on Netflix will be available to stream in HDR on mobile phones.
“Starting with the LG G6 phones that support both Dolby Vision and HDR 10 streams, Netflix would be supporting HDR on mobile devices,” Hastings said, as reported by the Economic Times. “Today, users can watch shows like Santa Clarita Diet, Chef's Table, The OA and all of the Marvel series in HDR.”
In 2015, approximately 27 percent of people who signed up for Netflix were viewing content on their phones. The number is much higher in regions like Japan, India and South Korea, but it is also increasing in North America. As mobile technology becomes more advanced and is able to handle more complex streaming, people are turning to their phones and tablets as a way to stream TV shows and films.
Companies like T-Mobile have introduced controversial programs like “Binge On,” which allow users to stream content from services like Netflix without having to worry about overusing the amount of data included in their package, making mobile viewing more accessible than ever before.
Because more people are turning to phones as a way to stream content, Hastings said Netflix engineers are developing encoding techniques as a way to deliver top-quality streaming without using too much of a user’s bandwidth.
“Netflix will soon roll out new video encodes for mobile devices, providing someone who has an extremely poor internet connection watching on a cell network something that once was considered impossible,” Hastings said.
Hastings didn’t say when HDR-supported content will be available to stream on mobile phones, but more information is expected to be released in the coming months.
