Yesterday we noted that Netflix will soon enter the Australian market without their net neutrality principles in tow. Despite being a very vocal opponent to usage caps and zero rated apps (exempting some content from usage caps) here in the States, Netflix is striking deals with Australian ISPs to exempt all Netflix content from usage caps in the country. That's after the company blasted Comcast for exempting their content when used via the Xbox 360 a few years back.
Netflix didn't comment to many news outlets about the apparent disconnect outside of the press announcement, but did offer this not-really-an-explanation to The Verge:
quote:
Zero rating isn't great for consumers as it has the potential to distort consumer choice in favor of choices selected by an ISP. We'll push back against such efforts, but we won't put our service or our members at a disadvantage.
Of course either zero rating is good for consumers or it isn't, right? Sort of. The higher cost of transit and
unique peering relationships make Australia a notably different market from the U.S., and numerous other streaming operators in the country are cap exempt. Video on demand services like Presto, for example, are cap exempt on Australia’s largest ISP Bigpond. ABC's iView, likewise, has a similar deal with iiNet. In that sense, Netflix feels they
must be cap exempt if they're to start on equal footing with other streaming ventures.
Still, the disconnect here on policy rhetoric remains notable all the same, given Netflix's previous arguments that zero rating apps gave companies with deeper pockets an unfair advantage over competitors. Numerous countries including Chile, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Canada have banned the practice of zero-rating apps on net neutrality grounds.
When I mentioned on Twitter that Comcast PR would probably gain some good mileage out of Netflix's cap-exempt play, top Comcast spokesperson Sena Fitzmaurice threw a good-natured jab in Netflix's general direction: