Netflix, Comcast reach deal that should improve video speeds

The Netflix news comes as Comcast prepares to merge with Time Warner. 

|
Reuters
Netflix and Comcast have reached a deal that should improve Netflix service for Comcast subscribers.

Netflix and Comcast have reached a deal that should improve the quality of Netflix streaming video for Comcast subscribers. 

Although neither company has confirmed it, Shalini Ramachandran of The Wall Street Journal reports that the deal will give Netflix "direct access to Comcast's broadband network." In exchange, Netflix will pay the provider an undisclosed fee. 

"Working collaboratively over many months, the companies have established a more direct connection between Netflix and Comcast, similar to other networks, that’s already delivering an even better user experience to consumers, while also allowing for future growth in Netflix traffic," reps for Comcast said in a vaguely-worded press release. "Netflix receives no preferential network treatment under the multi-year agreement, terms of which are not being disclosed."

There's a lot going on here, so it may help to take a step back and consider the context. For one thing, there is the ongoing battle between Netflix, which is a bandwidth-guzzling monster, and Internet providers, who would rather not provide all that extra bandwidth for free. (Most recently, a tech expert alleged that Verizon is intentionally throttling traffic to Netflix; Verizon denies it.) 

Meanwhile, there are fears, as Doug Henschen of Information Week puts it, that a "Netflix-Comcast deal will spark similar deals with the cost of the fees passed along to the consumer. Will carriers be able to hold content providers over a barrel until they agree to pay fees for adequate bandwidth?"

Finally, there's the impending Comcast-Time Warner "mega merger." The deal, assuming it is approved, will be worth $45 billion. 

"I would have thought Netflix would have held out with the Time Warner Cable deal looming," analyst Craig Moffett told Reuters this week. "Netflix can ask for whatever it wants and has a reasonable shot at getting conditions put on the merger that could provide it with long-term benefit. On the other hand, that could be precisely what spurred this deal – that Comcast was willing to settle with Netflix for a relatively low price to make the Netflix problem go away ahead of the regulatory review."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Netflix, Comcast reach deal that should improve video speeds
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2014/0224/Netflix-Comcast-reach-deal-that-should-improve-video-speeds
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe