Sunday, March 23, 2014

Netflix Decides The Free Market Isn't So Good After All, Wants Government To Step In

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2014/03/21/netflix-decides-the-free-market-isnt-so-good-after-all-wants-government-to-step-in/

         Netflix and Comcast have decided to partner up and provide "excellent user service."to their
customers. Netflix will be paying to Comcast to deliver the Netflix content directly to the Comcast users, without any signal interruption. Its a great news for the 3 million Netflix users. Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, thinks that, though this kind of leverage is effective against Netflix(a large company), the smaller companies cannot afford this.

     This act indicates the need for stronger net neutrality protections.The internet connection is not owned by one company. Its a multiple chain link, where various companies transfer information to each other. 

    This act of partnering  might cost Netflix exorbitantly, as Netflix might have to start paying to other internet broadband services too(middle chains). This could lead to an increase in the price of Netflix service or if Netflix does not pay to the other companies then Netflix users will suffer from bad internet connection while streaming.

    The  Federal Commission of Communications(FCC) have two rules for wire broadband service providers  that 1) they cannot block anything from their users and 2) they cannot discriminate on any content. However the catch here is there are no rules for non disclosure terms such as 'peering' and 'interconnection.'( The middle points between the ISP's and the users).

    Thus FCC needs to make definite rules on the transformation of content, otherwise it will lead to exploitation.


1 comment:

  1. I think I'm missing something, but it sounds like Netflix wants the government to stay out. Won't more regulations just cause the deal to be illegal?

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