Netflix & Comcast Reach Deal on Service

[strife]

Link

Comcast, the country’s largest cable and broadband provider, and Netflix, the giant television and movie streaming service, announced an agreement Sunday in which Netflix will pay Comcast for faster and more reliable access to Comcast’s subscribers.

It is also unclear whether the Comcast-Netflix deal violates the principles of what is known as net neutrality — where all content providers have equal and free access to consumers. People close to the deal characterize it as a common arrangement. Content companies frequently pay a middleman to carry traffic to a broadband provider, which then moves through its pipes and into a consumer’s home.

In a news release announcing the deal, the companies said, “Netflix receives no preferential network treatment under the multiyear agreement.” Details were not disclosed, but a person close to the companies said it involved annual payments of several million dollars.

Hmm, not sure what to think about this. Would be nice to know more details about it, but evidently they haven't been released yet.

“This is the water in the basement for the Internet industry,” Mr. Wu said, the first in what could be a flood of such arrangements. “I think it is going to be bad for consumers,” he added, because such costs are often passed through to the customer.

One fear is that if such deals become common, only the wealthiest content companies will be able to afford to pay for them, which could stifle the next Netflix from ever getting off the ground.

I guess we'll see when Netflix raises their prices... I'm curious to see if this hurts Netflix's stock value(I'm showing it's currently down .063%, but that obviously could be just general fluctuation).

The announcement on Sunday confirmed reports that had trickled out late last week, as close watchers of Internet traffic began to detect a more direct Internet path of Netflix videos to Comcast customers.

In recent months, Netflix had reported that delivery speed of its content to Comcast subscribers had declined by more than 25 percent, resulting in frequent interruptions and delays for customers trying to stream television shows and movies delivered through Netflix. Customers of other providers, including Verizon, also reported delays.

....... Any of you Netflix users notice any of this recently? Fucking Comcast is the devil...

[Diggles]

Its a sad state when a content provider has to pay to get their content out into the world. What the fuck are comcast subscribers paying for? Its a failure for FCC/government to keep net neutrality. Fuck Comcast, noone would would have been able to get away with this.

In the end, Netflix did the easy fix (instead of painting Comcast as the clear fuckwits they are) and just pays so there is no backlash/drop in service for their clients using comcast...which could have easily hurt them more than what they are now going to pay Comcast.

[Slamz]

Yeah, sounds like extortion. Hurt Netflix's throughput, make them pony up some cash to get back to where they were. But, "whaddya gonna do". I'd bet most of these Comcast customers have no choice in internet providers. They can complain but Comcast can just tell em to fuck off. Same reason Comcast customer service centers are as bad as the Department of Motor Vehicles. They have no incentive to give anyone good service because they know their customers' only choice is them or learn to like not having an internet connection.

I dunno that Netflix will raise prices again, after the last fiasco (although I hope they do because that was ultimately an awesome stock buy and I'd likely bet on them again). What it'll probably hurt is their ability to bring in new programming. Money that could have gone to streaming rights for more shows will instead go to ISPs to carry the content.


This is probably how Comcast is expecting to make money back from all the people canceling cable. Well over 50% of the people I know have canceled cable (I actually think it's around 80% of the people I know. Almost everyone at the office has canceled it and just gone to online options.)

[strife]

I'd bet most of these Comcast customers have no choice in internet providers. They can complain but Comcast can just tell em to fuck off. Same reason Comcast customer service centers are as bad as the Department of Motor Vehicles. They have no incentive to give anyone good service because they know their customers' only choice is them or learn to like not having an internet connection.

Bingo. That's pretty much the boat I'm in. I live just on the outskirts of Houston, and my internet provider options are Comcast, or some shit DSL. For TV it's Comcast or Satellite. AT&T/Verizon don't offer TV in my area and if I switch my TV to one of the satellite companies, my internet goes up from it's current $45-50 a month, to like $75 a month. I could save a little on TV by switching, but it's just not really worth it after the boost in the internet price. I've wanted to cut the cable for a while now, but my wife is unwilling to go without cable(I mean, if she couldn't watch her 18 and pregnant bullshit she'd have a hissy fit).

[Maren]

I live in the outskirts of Houston as well. I tried Comcast a while ago for internet and cable and hated it so much I dropped them within the first week. I switched back to DirectTV and was lucky enough to be in an area with Verizon FIOS, and have never looked back. While the satellite service is pricy, I managed to get 2 households (mine and my dad's) worth of dishes and boxes on to one account, so the overall monthly cost is manageable.

[Grieve]

....... Any of you Netflix users notice any of this recently? Fucking Comcast is the devil...

We've cut the cord, and use the hell out of Netflix. Four kids, plus have given out the account info to various family members. Haven't noticed any slowdown at all, though.

Edit: Ah, this explains why:

http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/02/h...mbers.html

In a little known, but public fact, anyone who is on Comcast and using Apple TV to stream Netflix wasn’t having quality problems. The reason for this is that Netflix is using Level 3 and Limelight to stream their content specifically to the Apple TV device. What this shows is that Netflix is the one that decides and controls how they get their content to each device and whether they do it via their own servers or a third party. Netflix decides which third party CDNs to use and when Netflix uses their own CDN, they decide whom to buy transit from, with what capacity, in what locations and how many connections they buy, from the transit provider. Netflix is the one in control of this, not Comcast or any ISP.

[Jakensama]

I'd bet most of these Comcast customers have no choice in internet providers. They can complain but Comcast can just tell em to fuck off. Same reason Comcast customer service centers are as bad as the Department of Motor Vehicles. They have no incentive to give anyone good service because they know their customers' only choice is them or learn to like not having an internet connection.

Bingo. That's pretty much the boat I'm in. I live just on the outskirts of Houston, and my internet provider options are Comcast, or some shit DSL. For TV it's Comcast or Satellite. AT&T/Verizon don't offer TV in my area and if I switch my TV to one of the satellite companies, my internet goes up from it's current $45-50 a month, to like $75 a month. I could save a little on TV by switching, but it's just not really worth it after the boost in the internet price. I've wanted to cut the cable for a while now, but my wife is unwilling to go without cable(I mean, if she couldn't watch her 18 and pregnant bullshit she'd have a hissy fit).

I remember when my fucking parents house in Kingwood had Cebridge Connections or some garbage.. It was fucking atrocious. I think I had Time Warner or something when I lived in Atascocita.

[strife]

I'd bet most of these Comcast customers have no choice in internet providers. They can complain but Comcast can just tell em to fuck off. Same reason Comcast customer service centers are as bad as the Department of Motor Vehicles. They have no incentive to give anyone good service because they know their customers' only choice is them or learn to like not having an internet connection.

Bingo. That's pretty much the boat I'm in. I live just on the outskirts of Houston, and my internet provider options are Comcast, or some shit DSL. For TV it's Comcast or Satellite. AT&T/Verizon don't offer TV in my area and if I switch my TV to one of the satellite companies, my internet goes up from it's current $45-50 a month, to like $75 a month. I could save a little on TV by switching, but it's just not really worth it after the boost in the internet price. I've wanted to cut the cable for a while now, but my wife is unwilling to go without cable(I mean, if she couldn't watch her 18 and pregnant bullshit she'd have a hissy fit).

I remember when my fucking parents house in Kingwood had Cebridge Connections or some garbage.. It was fucking atrocious. I think I had Time Warner or something when I lived in Atascocita.

yea Time Warner changed to comcast a few years back. It's pretty much the only decent internet service in the area

[Vanraw]

I wonder if it would be better for subs to just get a VPN service like Private Internet access, and stream through there? Comcast cant see or filter what's inside a tunnel. They can still cap bandwidth though. I use this to stream content from TV stations in the UK and Canada that are blocked by USA DRM bullies like Syfy.

My biggest issue with this compromise is that it further solidifies the "Big business" model. My provider is a local cable company (Imon). Great service, money stays in town, I get 65mps. But they don't have HBO GO yet, and they don't have agreements with things like Xbox and big networks like the big guys have. So a Netflix agreement might not be available.

The big guys are crushing anyone that wants to be a great small provider through back room deals like this.