Netflix: Taking on the Cable Guys
Netflix, with +20m customers, has meaningful & significant subscribers. And I think it is getting to ready to use that muscle. They are a business, much like Google:
– With no original content from them – they license, aggregate and distribute
– With no network infrastructure, with zero investments in networks (but they do partner/pay CDN operators)
However they do have the power of subscribers to back them up!
But you can summarize it in a sentence: If the broadband guys insist on gouging us to get video to our customers, we’re going to make a very public stink.
Hastings says the list will detail “which ISPs provide the best, most consistent high-speed Internet for streaming Netflix,” and offers a preview: Charter is tops, right now.
But if you invert Hastings’s description, you get what he really means: We’re going to tell some broadband customers that they’re getting screwed and should switch to a new provider. Heads up, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, etc.
All Things CC: 
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