Very agressive stream switching and hitching when set to "Auto"

For about the past week both East and West livestreams have been very hitchy for me, constantly switching between qualities when set to "Auto". I've been using the "Auto" setting for quite awhile since it usually provides the best quality (even more than "High") but something must've changed recently to make the setting very aggressive. I haven't tested other browsers, but this is happening to me on Firefox 65.0.2 (latest). This is on my gaming desktop on my gigabit fiber optic connection, so I don't believe PC or connection issues are the culprit.

EDIT: This is also happening on other qualities as well. I set the latest stream (Breaking Brad) to "High" and the stuttering / start & stop is happening there too.

I set the quality to High and it still stutter back and forth a second every so often too. I'm on the same version of Firefox as well.

I'm having these issues as well. It'd be nice if we could select the highest bitrate option without having to select "Auto." The player seems to regularly cycle through the various stream qualities and it's jarring. I don't tend to have issues with other streaming video things outside of gb's live stream player.

Does it also do so via a chromecast or other non-interactive video player?

I was only referring to the desktop browser livestream player.

Tagging in @wcarle

I forgot to mention that I have zero issues with playback in the same browser setup for archived / not live videos. I can also watch videos via apps like AppleTV just fine. Just live videos the past week or so have been giving me issues

Same here, latest Firefox and only on live shows, not archives.

I've noticed this recently on my PS4. I use the browser for live streams and it used to be mostly fine with the odd hitch here and there but recently I've had to lower the quality down to "low" or I get constant hitching and buffering. I know the PS4 browser isn't ideal but it's hooked up to the TV and it used to be ok.

edit: I just watched This is The Run live and it was absolutely fine. So maybe an Akamai issue as mentioned below?

Been experiencing this on multiple - but not all - live streams also. Have also seen people in chat complaining about it when I've not been experiencing it, which makes me think it's a problem with Akamai, but I'm sure Will et al know more about why that might be the case than I do.

Just watching The Division 2 live and it's doing it still. Switches between 3 bit rates every 30 seconds or so.

Also confirming that this is currently happening to me while watching The Division 2 stream.

EDIT: I tried switching to Chrome, and the issue is still there. So it seems like it's not just isolated to FireFox

More skips during the currently in-progress Bombcast. I'm getting skips back, then skips forward to catch up. Happens in fits and starts, then calms down. It's absolutely infuriating.

I've been getting this on and off for a while as well but I always assumed it had something to do with their server hosting solution, the way it will not always choose the best data center for your geographical location.

Had this for a number of weeks now, regardless of device. It possibly breaks things entirely on a PS4 browser, too (yes, I'm one of those guys). I'm over in the UK, and my connection speed is plenty fast enough at ~75Mbps.

I feel like I had the same issue years back that eventually got fixed for a good stretch.

same here