[opendtv] Re: News: Netflix Partner Says Comcast 'Toll' Threatens Online Video Delivery
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2010 06:37:00 -0500
At 5:49 PM -0600 11/30/10, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
Maybe now "someone" will understand that the congloms aren't the
whole problem here. This is the example, in fact, the congloms don't
figure at all. It's Netflix and its Internet sourcing partner, Level
3 Communications, vs an ISP (in this case, Comcast, but other ISPs
are sure to follow).
Uhhhhhhh Bert.
Comcast IS one of the congloms. They are buying NBC Unversal and have
been in the content business for years via their sports networks.
But even if they were NOT buying NBC, they are still part of The
Empire that the the congloms are trying to protect. The MVPDs collect
the subscriber fees for the congloms - all the noise when the MVPDs
get into battles over these fees is just a show to give subscribers
the impression that they are trying to protect them from ever higher
rates...
Let's just call this INTENDED consequences.
Now they are on the verge of losing some of their power to new
competitors and a public that is anxious to move to ala carte paymets
for content.
As long as you're dependent on an umbillical, you can expect this to happen.
As long as the government props up these oligopolies we can expect
this to happen.
On the other hand, there's no question that these Internet TV sites
will be creating a lot of extra demand for bandwidth from ISP
networks. And there's no question that the money for the upgrades
has to come from somewhere. So we can expect these shenanigans to
happen more frequently, as Internet TV becomes popular.
The money for these upgrades has been coming from the public for
decades. The actual cost for broadband is a small fraction of what
customers in the U.S. are paying for broadband services. The only
thing that has changed is that NOW, the application that is driving
the upgrades is the delivery of Video over the Internet.
You seem to think that companies like Netflix are getting a free
ride. They pay dearly to companies like Level 3 for the bandwidth to
deliver this content.
Objectively speaking, Netflix will be saving lots of money if they
don't need to mail out DVDs anymore. But there is nothing written on
any Tablet that says the IP streaming alternative comes for free,
either.
It is amazing how you can selectively ignore facts that are presented
on this forum. Last week Monty Solomon posted a New York Times story
about Netflix which said:
For the first time, the company will spend more over the holidays to
stream movies than to ship DVDs in its familiar red envelopes
(although it is still spending more than half a billion dollars on
postage this year). And that shift coincides with an ominous
development for cable companies, which long controlled home
entertainment: for the first time in their history, cable television
subscriptions fell in the United States in the last two quarters - a
trend some attribute to the rise of Netflix, which allows consumers
to bypass their cable box to stream movies and shows.
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/business/25netflix.html
Yes Netflix may spend less on postage moving forward, but they are
ALREADY spending MORE on streaming. Now Comcast has added another
little tax to every stream they send to a Comcast subscriber.
This is right up there with Fox blocking their content from
Cablevision broadband subscribers during the recent retrans consent
dispute. And as I recall, the regulators did not do ANYTHING about
that. I can say with reasonable confidence that the FCC is not going
to make Comcast roll back these new fees.
It's a protection racket Bert.
It will be interesting to see whether the FCC gets involved, using
"net neutrality" and Title II regulation as their stick. But even
they can't mandate that ISPs grow money on trees. The result will no
doubt be, either higher Netflix fees, or higher ISP fees, or both,
no matter what the FCC does.
You ARE right about escalating fees. I just posted an article saying
that the congloms are trying to raise the cost of their content to
Netflix as new contracts are signed. And no matter what the FCC does
about Netnwork Neutrality, it is clear that we will pay more for the
higher speeds needed to stream HDTV.
Such is the reality of living in a world where the government
protects these oligopolies; a government that is now openly attacking
free markets and capitalism.
The new gang in town had a nice lunch with our ruler yesterday...
Regards
Craig
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