A video quality module receives data indicating a visibility status of a tab of a web browser running on a user device. The video quality module determines, based on the data indicating the visibility status of the tab whether the tab of the web browser is currently visible to a user of the user device, the tab of the web browser comprising a streaming media player. If the tab of the web browser is not currently visible to the user, the video quality module decreases a quality of a video component of a streaming media file playing in the streaming media player.