Comcast and Netflix reach deal

[Voyager6]

Finally an end to the throttling of Netflix on Comcast.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57...hes-streaming-traffic-agreement-with-comcast/

Netflix and Comcast have reached an agreement aimed at smoothing the streaming of Netflix content to the cable company's customers, ending a dispute that included suggestions of throttled traffic.

The video-rental company has agreed to pay Comcast for direct access to its broadband network, sources told The Wall Street Journal, which was first to report the deal. The agreement comes less than two weeks after Comcast announced a $45 billion deal for Time Warner Cable, a merger that if approved could create a cable empire serving 33 million customers across the country.
The agreement was revealed in a joint announcement from the companies that did not disclose the terms of the deal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/b...-and-netflix-reach-a-streaming-agreement.html

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.

The deal is a milestone in the history of the Internet, where content providers like Netflix generally have not had to pay for access to the customers of a broadband provider.
But the growing power of broadband companies like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T has given those companies increased leverage over sites whose traffic gobbles up chunks of a network’s capacity. Netflix is one of those sites, accounting for nearly 30 percent of all Internet traffic at peak hours.

 

[radio]

Wow. Now start the office pool: How long before this "voluntary" contribution by Netflix to 'net providers is passed on to ALL of us who subscribe, even those NOT on Comcast or Verizon. Sorry, but this is NOT good news in the bigger picture. It's corporate BS at it's finest. As is the merger. "Bigger is better" screams America...Until "bigger' gets knocked out somehow..and we all say, "what happened??" It's the national version of "bundling"....putting all one's (communications) eggs in one basket.

 

[Voyager6]

I agree that this is not good for consumers (or other internet users). But without a real Net Neutrality backstop, this is what we will have to deal with. Big users will have to pony up to use that last mile to get into homes with a "reasonable" speed. In my case, Netflix was almost unwatchable in the evenings with constant buffering and low quality picture (non-HD). This began back in October. Prior to that I had a great PQ on Netflix. Comcast and Verizon were both accused of throttling the speed of Netflix to their users. Online forums documented the reduction in speed (and bandwidth) on both systems.