Netflix to Lose Subscribers Due to Rate Hike → The threat

Right on target with the real threat to Netflix's business.

A friend is canceling his service after over a decade, and I'm not upset at the rate hike.

I urged my friend to resubscribe because Netflix is the only pure play internet entertainment provider that has the clout to try and get network neutrality passed. Google should do it, but is so in bed with the carriers to keep Android on the front burner that they risk getting them angry.

But Netflix has the best chance with elected officials to explain simply and in sound bite friendly ways why network neutrality and metered internet are big threats to innovation and continued economic growth in the internet services sector. People know Netflix. People like Netflix (used to like it more, it seems, so they did lose some political capital). People just might call their congresscritter if Netflix starts calling out particular carriers as bogeymen.

Yes, Sony and Microsoft and Nintendo should also definitely be leaning really hard in favor of network neutrality so their gaming networks (and phone networks and now for Microsoft their Win8 cloud everything network) will work, but I'm afraid they will cozy up to the carriers and make back-room deals to pay them off to keep the fast lanes open for them instead.

The tv service providers/ISPs hate Netflix. They want to destroy it. There's no cozying up to them, so Netflix has to fight. What Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and everyone else don't realize is that the carriers hate THEM too, and will steadily choke them off one way or another -- by making consumers afraid to use their internet service or making them pay through the nose for access to their customers -- given any chance to do so.