NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Cancel Cable! Get Great TV Over the Internet!
At 2 Mbps for most "HD" Internet streams, you can pretty much watch an
average of ~6 hours a day 30 days a month with a budget of 150 GB per month.
I don't think that's the big problem when we're talking about reasonable
caps in the 150 to 250 GB range.
One ironic part about the article is that it talks about ESPN360 which uses
what I first termed reverse net neutrality in 2006
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=251. This is where ESPN360 blocks your entire
range of IP addresses for your ISP unless your ISP pays them a
per-subscriber fee. That means for most of us that don't watch ESPN360, we
are all forced to subsidize it for those who do use the service. The point
here is that content providers actually have more power to block ISPs than
ISPs blocking content providers. Not only is the law permitting it, but
it's actually been happening for some time.
George Ou
[ A couple of issues here. First, while 150-250 GB/mo may be
enough for a considerable amount of pseudo-HD stream watching
(emphasis on *pseudo* -- that stuff isn't really HD) that also
assumes little other significant usage. More importantly, many
ISPs are planning or have implemented *far* lower caps for
similarly provisioned services (e.g. TW at 40 GB, others much
lower than that).
It's not clear to me that the ESPN360 case really involves net
neutrality (standard or "reverse") per se at all. ESPN360 is not
a gateway to the Internet at large in the manner that ISPs are.
ESPN's restrictive distribution policy affects no services other
than their own. There is generally no requirement that content
providers make their content available universally or for free.
While I personally don't much care for the "we get a cut of all
subs whether they watch us or not" cable model, I'm also not a
supporter of proposals to require broad a la carte pricing of
cable channels, since I believe that the loss of channel
cross-subsidization could destroy some great channels with
relatively low viewership. So this is a complicated situation.
-- Lauren Weinstein
NNSquad Moderator ]
-----Original Message-----
From: nnsquad-bounces+george_ou=lanarchitect.net@nnsquad.org
[mailto:nnsquad-bounces+george_ou=lanarchitect.net@nnsquad.org] On Behalf Of
Lauren Weinstein
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 12:34 PM
To: nnsquad@nnsquad.org
Subject: [ NNSquad ] Cancel Cable! Get Great TV Over the Internet!
Typical breathless article about watching TV and movies over the Internet,
with no mention of bandwidth caps. And of course, you still need to
access the Internet from somewhere -- like, uh, cable.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Economy/Story?id=6764960
--Lauren--
NNSquad Moderator