[leeb]

Just saw this in USA Today...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2014/03/08/netflix-to-raise-prices/6162371/


And if you want HD+ streams, you're gonna pay more for that too!

 

[Mark12547]


According to that article, current customers will be grandfathered into the current prices, so they won't be hit with the price increase, at least if what they report regarding the shareholder letter about proposed price increases for new customers is true. However, someone who drops the streaming plan and later signs up again my be hit by a price increase at that time.

 

Two errors stood out when I read the article:

 

Quote:
The deal with Comcast is the first volley in the Net Neutrality war.

Actually, no. It's a commercial interconnect deal, and such commercial interconnect deals have been around for a very long time. Netflix was paying another party to provide the transport to Comcast, but that party had apparently way oversold its capacity and refused to buy more interconnect capacity with Comcast, so now Netflix is buying direct connect capacity directly from Comcast, just like some other major players (such as YouTube) have already been doing.

 

Quote:
Netflix has been battling for years over whether it would need to pay more to pipe its content over Comcast's last mile.

Actually, the last mile is very specifically excluded from the agreement.

 

A better article on the Comcast/Netflix deal is Inside The Netflix/Comcast Deal and What The Media Is Getting Very Wrong (and WSJ is specifically mentioned as one of those media organizations getting the details of the agreement wrong).

 

[anonAVS]

Read the article carefully.


All the pricing listed was pure speculation.


Really it seems like the author is misinterpreting what Netflix said.


Netflix has been playing around with different tiers for several months now, such as the $6.99 SD only tier and the $9.99 3-stream tier.

 

[9179mhb]

What guarantee can Netflix provide if we're paying for an HD video stream we will actually receive the HD video stream?

 

[Mark12547]



Quote:
Originally Posted by 9179mhb  /t/1521694/yup-youre-going-to-be-paying-more-for-netflix#post_24491710


What guarantee can Netflix provide if we're paying for an HD video stream we will actually receive the HD video stream?

None. Netflix has no control over intermediate parties (other than firing them like they did for delivering through Cogent to Comcast), and Netflix has no control over "the last mile".

 

[9179mhb]

Without some "guarantee" of receiving an HD video stream why would I pay more money to Netflix?

 

[Apostate]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark12547  /t/1521694/yup-youre-going-to-be-paying-more-for-netflix#post_24491751



None. Netflix has no control over intermediate parties (other than firing them like they did for delivering through Cogent to Comcast), and Netflix has no control over "the last mile".

Netflix does have the control. Netflix is the one that dictates the path its data takes. When you select a program on Netflix, it's Netflix that directs your request, determine which CDN, etc. It's not ISP that decides the path. Netflix may not have the control of "the last mile" but that never has been the issue that caused all the Netflix streaming problems so that's a non-issue.


Also Cogent was the most prominent conduit of Netflix (due to all the conflicts it has with other ISPs) but it was never the only conduit for Netflix. Cogent issue was an easy example for media to use to explain the Netflix streaming problems.


In the end, it's Netflix that failed to efficiently and sufficiently allocate the bandwidth between CDN's and users that caused all the Netflix streaming problems.

 

[Mark12547]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Apostate  /t/1521694/yup-youre-going-to-be-paying-more-for-netflix#post_24493719

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark12547  /t/1521694/yup-youre-going-to-be-paying-more-for-netflix#post_24491751



None. Netflix has no control over intermediate parties (other than firing them like they did for delivering through Cogent to Comcast), and Netflix has no control over "the last mile".

Netflix does have the control. Netflix is the one that dictates the path its data takes

 

No, Netflix doesn't have any control over the path the data takes. Netflix decides which of various places the data will originate, such as on a particular server's connection to the Internet (be that Cogent or some other third-party service, or a server with a connection directly to Comcast), but, beyond that, Comcast doesn't control the path between that server and the final consumer.

 

You could say that Netflix controls which first mile is used, and your ISP controls the last mile, but Netflix doesn't control the miles in between.

 

[Apostate]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark12547  /t/1521694/yup-youre-going-to-be-paying-more-for-netflix#post_24493935


No, Netflix doesn't have any control over the path the data takes.

Netflix begs to differ. http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/02/netflix-video-presentation-details-open-connect-cdn-strategy.html

 

[Mark12547]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Apostate  /t/1521694/yup-youre-going-to-be-paying-more-for-netflix#post_24494344

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark12547  /t/1521694/yup-youre-going-to-be-paying-more-for-netflix#post_24493935


No, Netflix doesn't have any control over the path the data takes.

Netflix begs to differ. http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/02/netflix-video-presentation-details-open-connect-cdn-strategy.html

 

I listened to the video in that article and, while it does say Netflix gets routing information, all it says about Netflix routing traffic is that Netflix will select the server (or "cached server", which in context of the speech is a server with the subset of streams that are more popular) to serve a given client for a given stream, there was nothing about Netflix picking the routing from the end-user to the selected server.

 

So, again, it is Netflix selecting the particular server (point A) to serve the stream to the client (point B), but Netflix does not pick the route between point A and Point B. However, Netflix is strategically deploying servers (more point A's at strategic locations. either in the ISP's own network for "Open Connection" or connected to the ISP as in the Comcast/Netflix agreement) so that the ISPs should have more rational ("shorter", so to speak) paths between point A and point B.

 

But again, Netflix picks an endpoint and the customer is the other endpoint, and it is up to the ISP to route the traffic, so the Netflix traffic is still subject to the routing that the ISP uses for that particular stream of packets, the equipment of the ISP, the capacity along the particular route, and that is beyond Netflix control.

 

However, I would think that if Netflix is getting routing information, Netflix could go back to that ISP if the routing appears to be irrational.

 

[tenthplanet]



Quote:
Originally Posted by leeb  /t/1521694/yup-youre-going-to-be-paying-more-for-netflix#post_24458737


Just saw this in USA Today...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2014/03/08/netflix-to-raise-prices/6162371/


And if you want HD+ streams, you're gonna pay more for that too!

I'm surprised it hasn't gone up already. Most of what you buy does/ and is going up. Fact of life....Nothing to see here....Moving on.