Comcast-Time Warner Merger

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but some of us like Internet porn.

Comments

[telemann.livejournal.com]

;)

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

We get Dish ourselves, but there is this Internet business.
Dish has actually gotten into satellite internet-service too,
but that would be a big change for us, and I suppose we'll
have to see how hard Comcast bites down on us before we
make such a switch. I'm hoping the FCC will just be able
to regulate away the worst nonsense.

[cinnamontoast.livejournal.com]

The internet is not all fun and porn. Some of us are worried because we depend on non-throttled speeds for moving large amounts of data for work that we do at home. Time Warner isn't the greatest company in the world, but they have a much better reputation for customer service than Comcast. It's not saying much, but even a little CS means a lot when you have clients waiting.

Bonus grumpy old lady: I have books and old comics stock-piled for the zombie apocalypse, but most of my reading takes place electronically these days.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Funny, I thought that both companies actually rated poor on customer service. I wish I kept the articles. I also recall reading one that said that cord-cutters may not have such a good deal once this cable stuff gets consolidated, having practically a monopolistic control over both entertainment programming and Internet cable service. Poorer service, slower speeds, and higher bills. Yay, America!

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

It's hard to find a cable company rated highly. People don't appreciate the value of cable, and get semi-rightfully peeved at things like install time windows.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I think people greatly appreciate the value of cable: since the coming of the Internet,
it has even become a lifeline - essential services. What we don't like is that America
tends to get poorer service than the rest of the world, and we're supposed to be so great.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I think people greatly appreciate the value of cable: since the coming of the Internet,
it has even become a lifeline - essential services.

People think cable is much too expensive for what it offers. Much of the complaining about cable is cost, not so much the service itself.

What we don't like is that America
tends to get poorer service than the rest of the world, and we're supposed to be so great.

Out of context, that's true. Once you consider the reality of large geographic areas and our commitment to free and open services as opposed to government ones, though, it's a little more understandable. Unfortunately, far too few people get to that point in their thinking.

[cinnamontoast.livejournal.com]

People tend to spend more time complaining than they do complimenting. There are local communities (*cough* government) that have pulled together to put in high speed internet access in order to attract high tech business to their areas. Some have been successful. If you do a search, you'll come up with it.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I'm aware of some of them. It's a significant gamble, and one where I question the cost/benefit even outside of the basic good government principles.

A town near us has run cable and internet for as long as I can remember. They're continually behind the curve on updated tech. Anecdote isn't data, etc.

[cinnamontoast.livejournal.com]

Business class TWC has good regional customer service - We've never had a problem with them anyway. They've always been responsive and are pretty good about giving us honest answers during down times. I'm sure we'll be the unlucky ones flipped to Comcast though.

We're cord cutters - Our cable tv has been gone for years and we experienced our first problem two weeks ago with a Netflix slowdown (http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304899704579391223249896550). Of course both sides blamed the other when we called about it. Otherwise we haven't missed cable tv at all.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

It's interesting. Anecdote being what it is, we're a FIOS household and Netflix has never been great on it, but I haven't seen anything new. I often wonder if people are more looking for places to blame that accepting some different limitations.

I would also gladly cut the cord, but local baseball blackout rules make that an intolerable situation for me.

[cinnamontoast.livejournal.com]

We have business class cable, so it's pretty fast. We've got subscriptions to the major internet providers and watch everything next month/day. We have an internet subscription for the NFL football season and my husband watches multiple games on multiple devices. We listen to baseball games on the internet/radio on the porch since the MLB hasn't seen fit to provide a way to let us give them money.

All of that is still WAY less expensive than cable television.

I grew up with three channels that were always fuzzy. I adore television, but if it disappeared tomorrow, I wouldn't die.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I would love to give the MLB money for the season pass/extra innings thing. That + Hulu + Netflix + Amazon + an antenna would cover 90% of our watching at a fraction of the cost. Alas.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

That's interesting because I've read the one thing that's driving increasing costs for cable carriers in terms of CONTENT, are major league sports fees.

[cinnamontoast.livejournal.com]

It's a really long story, but we weren't able to see our beloved Yankees play because regional sports is run very badly on cable television. Since we weren't able to watch the Yankees play on cable, we found other ways to see/hear the games and cut the cord.

Baseball is still an excellent sport on the radio - Especially when you can sit on the porch with a beer on a hot day and listen. It's just summer.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

http://davesblog.com/blog/2014/02/05/verizon-using-recent-net-neutrality-victory-to-wage-war-against-netflix/

Verizon has an interest in making Netflix look bad as they've been partners with Redbox Instant since its inception in 2012.

[cinnamontoast.livejournal.com]

I've been reading about the deal with Verizon. If I had Verizon, I'd be really ticked off. But, we have TWC and noticed the same slow down on Netflix only - Hulu and Amazon work just fine.

There's a war brewing between the major carriers and content providers and it's gonna get ugly. Unfortunately, it's the consumer that gets hit in the crossfire. My husband is in the middle of watching Breaking Bad on Netflix and the buffering is infuriating!

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

That's the point where I get a torrent and don't feel bad about it. You guys think you have it bad, we have no way of legally acquiring Game Of Thrones without a $75/m cable TV subscription or waiting 12 months for the DVDs to come out (this is happening more and more with TV). Then some things, like The Daily Show, are impossible to get legally.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know one guy can do some traceroutes and he thinks he then understands how the traffic works on the other end, but this reads like a lot of low-evidence theorizing.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

lol ok

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

Netflix is paying off Comcast for direct traffic access, says WSJ (http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/23/5439566/the-wall-street-journal-confirms-multiyear-traffic-deal-between)

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

LOL If you cannot beat them, pay them.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

This actually probably works out better for Netflix in the long run. Netflix doesn't have to pay a middleman to deliver data to Comcast anymore, and Comcast gets better service for their customers.

I don't think this would impact net neutrality at all, given that this doesn't prioritize any traffic but instead makes it easier for Comcast to receive and distribute. If net neutrality regulations would impact this sort of deal, though, it's just another reason to avoid those regs completely.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. But it looks to me like there was something in Comcast's set-up
that made NetFlix service bumpy, maybe quite unintentional, but it was a
problem such that Comcast was not all that interested in getting to the bottom
of it and fixing it, and so Netflix had to pay an extra toll. If there is something
to this, it does not strike me as being especially wholesome, but I guess we're
grown-ups and understand that life is not always very nice. In the end, as consumers,
we will presumably have to pay higher prices, as always.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Well, the problem was, ironically, not prioritizing traffic. Most of their customers wanted Netflix, but since they're treating everything coming in the same way, the biggest player suffers.

By having a direct pipe coming in, essentially, you're solving the prioritization problem on the incoming end while not impacting how it gets to the customer.