In one embodiment, a method determines first information from a component of a computing device to determine when receiving of one or more advertisements will affect an available bandwidth reading that is based on receiving of a media program. Then, the method dynamically disables a multiple bitrate algorithm based upon the first information such that a new bitrate version of the media program cannot be requested by the multiple bitrate algorithm for the media player. Second information is determined from the component of the computing device to determine when the available bandwidth reading will not be affected by receiving of the one or more advertisements. The method then dynamically enables the multiple bitrate algorithm based on the second information. The multiple bitrate algorithm is then allowed to request the different bitrate version of the media program based on the available bandwidth reading.