Given Netflix's opposition to usage caps and support of net neutrality, (not to mention their slow erosion of cable's viewing audience) the company was already public enemy number one for many cable and phone companies. But Netflix's recent battle with ISPs over interconnection has pretty clearly launched the cable and broadband industry's dislike of the streaming operator into an entirely new orbit. The number of attempts to shame Netflix in the press by politicians or random think tankers has seen a not-coincidental spike.
Netflix has also been a very vocal opponent of Comcast's $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable in particular, something that new Comcast filings with the FCC (pdf) make clear is very much a thorn in Comcast's side. Netflix is referenced some 179 different times in their latest merger defense missive, Comcast repeatedly claiming that because Netflix itself is so large, they have no room to criticize the cable giant. Especially since, Comcast insists, they're incredibly well-behaved on competitive issues:
quote:
Comcast is already the largest MVPD in the country and has been so for 12 years...one would expect to see some evidence that Comcast has been more likely to engage in foreclosure or exclusionary conduct than other MVPDs. The facts refute this, however. Comcast’s actual and purported rivals have consistently grown over the last decade while Comcast has lost subscribers. And there is no evidence that Comcast has engaged in any of the categories of anticompetitive conduct identified, much less that it has done so more frequently than smaller MVPDs.
Given Comcast's clear history with
anti-competitive shenanigans, the company may want to hold off on applying for sainthood just yet. In the filing, Comcast returns again and again to their interconnection feud with Netflix, again claiming that the slowdown consumers experienced earlier this year were the intentional fault of Netflix, not (as consumer groups, Level 3, Cogent
and Netflix
repeatedly claim) incumbent ISPs looking to erect entirely new troll tolls on the edge of the network:
quote:
Comcast subscribers enjoyed high performance using Netflix until Netflix unilaterally decided to degrade that performance in a transparent effort to force Comcast to provide Netflix with free interconnection services...The pricing terms of the agreement are exactly the opposite of what one would expect if Comcast were attempting to exercise substantial bargaining power vis-à-vis Netflix. Netflix’s own CEO, Reed Hastings, called the agreement “affordable” for Netflix and said it “works great for consumers.” He also described the amount of interconnection payments under the deal as “tiny.”
Of course since neither Netflix or Comcast will allow anybody to see this data, people (and analysts) generally go with who they trust more in the equation and speculate accordingly. Given Comcast's bad customer service reputation Netflix tends to get the public benefit of the doubt. But the fact remains, despite endless analysis and pie charts on some fronts, nobody actually knows who's at fault yet because nobody except Netflix and Comcast has seen all the data.
The FCC insists they're reviewing all the data in these deals, so we lowly plebeians in the public sphere will have to wait to see whose truly at fault with the entire interconnection affair until probably sometime in 2015.
Comcast Netflix
