How to be entertained when everything is closed, when the watchword is, despite the current spring weather, to stay at home? Over the past few days, numerous initiatives have been taken to provide temporarily free access to a multitude of normally paid content. What brighten up all this time spent cloistered at home.
It just starts with television. Earlier this week, Canal + Switzerland confirmed that it wanted to follow the decision taken in France to switch all of its channels to free-to-air. To do this, the group contacted all the Swiss operators. Unfortunately, to date only Salt and Net + have reacted favorably to the request of the Swiss division of the group of French origin.
When asked about this, Swisscom simply replied “being examining its various options and hopes to be able to say more in a few days”. As for Sunrise, the country’s second operator is justified in ensuring that the procedure is technically complex to be implemented quickly and speaks of a clear passage of Canal + channels by April or May.
The group presented however Friday a series of small commercial gestures proposed in reaction to the current health crisis. For example, the HollyStar Kids offer, which normally costs 6 francs per month, will become free from March 27 until June 30. For music lovers, Apple Music will also be available free of charge for the next six months (12fr.90 per month after), “said the operator.
Disney + arrival
Also in the television sector, the arrival of Disney + is imminent in Switzerland. As of March 24, more than 7,500 series episodes, 400 films from the historical catalog and a hundred more recent will be available. In addition, there are new features, such as the famous series from the Star Wars universe: “The Mandalorian”.
Only unknown to date: does this new platform not risk saturating the network a little more? The question arises when the American giants present their plan to reduce their own consumption. “Netflix has made the decision to reduce its throughput on all of its streams in Europe for a period of thirty days. According to our estimates, this represents a drop of around 25% in traffic while maintaining quality service for our subscribers, “the group said at the weekend. In the process, YouTube announced “temporarily switch (for 30 days) all its traffic in the European Union to standard definition by default”.
On this subject, the two main operators in Switzerland reiterated Friday that their infrastructure (mobile and fixed networks) have “sufficient capacity to provide telephony and internet traffic” in this extraordinary period. Assuming that the networks will actually hold out, video game enthusiasts will also have their own for these coming days. In the coming weekends, the giant Ubisoft will give free access to its most famous franchises. This has been the case since Thursday and until Sunday for “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey”, the latest installment in its successful franchise “Assassin’s Creed”.
Until the end of April, the Standing Stones Games studios will also make available all the content from “Lord of the Rings Online” and “Dungeons and Dragons Online”. Added to this are the opportunities offered by several sites and platforms such as GOG.com or GameLoft for mobile devices. Many games are available for free there and at least until the end of March. We can also mention the contents intended for the youngest and having some educational virtues. To keep the children a little occupied and replace the missed lesson hours, RTS revised the schedule of its programs at the beginning of the week, with more documentaries intended for this audience. “A special information program for young people will also be launched very soon,” she said, without giving further details.
Created: 20.03.2020, 7.20 p.m.
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