Use of Objective Quality Measures of Streamed Content to Reduce Streaming Bandwidth

A method includes encoding video at a first bitrate to produce first encoded sections, and at a second bitrate that is less than the first bitrate to produce second encoded sections. The method further includes measuring levels of objective quality, indicative of perceptual quality, of the first and second encoded sections. The method includes determining, based on the measured objective quality levels, replaceable sections among the first encoded sections, and replacement sections among the second encoded sections, each of the replacement sections to replace a corresponding one of the replaceable sections. the method includes streaming the first encoded sections except for the replaceable sections, and the replacement sections instead of their corresponding replaceable sections.