That is exactly it. TWC charges about $4 for a movie-on-demand assuming their crappy STB wants to actually work, Netflix gives me one dvd at a time and as many streaming online movies as I want for $9/month. If I watch three movies a month, Netflix is clearly a much better deal. However, if TWC puts bandwidth caps in place, they can at least make streaming Netflix more expensive vs TWC's VOD "service". To me, it's clearly anti-competitive behavior from TWC.
Every company that has an Internet based model needs to be paying conveyance charges to the companies who laid out the backbone. It makes no sense at all for TWC to carry the cost burden for running an internet service, but companies like Netflix or Hulu walk in and use loads of the bandwidth for free. These companies are making money so they need to pay a stiff fee to the ISP's so they are properly compensated.
Imagine Netflix got to send the DVD's for free but you had to pay $2 for each first class mailing. Absurd, right?
I want to blame TWC for the cap, but I need to blame companies like Netflix who are being irresponsible and taking advantage of the companies providing the connection and hardware to carry the data..
@ Kwikit: How is Netflix being irresponsible? Everybody pays (NF, TWC, You, Me) for their access to the network. Now. Who buys more capacity TWC or Netflix? Who can get a better price per GB? The one who buys less, or the one who buys more?
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Of course you all know this is just to try and squash competing VOD streaming services and the future of IPTV. It's only in their best interests.
That is exactly it. TWC charges about $4 for a movie-on-demand assuming their crappy STB wants to actually work, Netflix gives me one dvd at a time and as many streaming online movies as I want for $9/month. If I watch three movies a month, Netflix is clearly a much better deal. However, if TWC puts bandwidth caps in place, they can at least make streaming Netflix more expensive vs TWC's VOD "service".
To me, it's clearly anti-competitive behavior from TWC.
Maybe we should get Netflix to get into the isp business...
Every company that has an Internet based model needs to be paying conveyance charges to the companies who laid out the backbone. It makes no sense at all for TWC to carry the cost burden for running an internet service, but companies like Netflix or Hulu walk in and use loads of the bandwidth for free. These companies are making money so they need to pay a stiff fee to the ISP's so they are properly compensated.
Imagine Netflix got to send the DVD's for free but you had to pay $2 for each first class mailing. Absurd, right?
I want to blame TWC for the cap, but I need to blame companies like Netflix who are being irresponsible and taking advantage of the companies providing the connection and hardware to carry the data..
@ Kwikit: How is Netflix being irresponsible? Everybody pays (NF, TWC, You, Me) for their access to the network. Now. Who buys more capacity TWC or Netflix? Who can get a better price per GB? The one who buys less, or the one who buys more?