Why Comcast’s merger with Time Warner Cable might not be a bad thing. And then right into what’s slowing down Netflix, which shows why consolidation surely isn’t helping. Also all ‘y’all have connected TVs these days.
CordKillers: Ep. 7 – Who Throttles the Throttlers?
Recorded: February 17 2014
Guest: Deric A. Hughes
Intro Video:
Primary Target
- Comcast: No promise that prices “will go down or even increase less rapidly”
- Comcast takeover of Time Warner Cable to reshape U.S. pay TV
- Comcast lists all the ways a merger with Time Warner is “pro-consumer”
- $45.2 billion, just less than 30% of US, around 30 million households
Thursday : Comcast Executive VP David Cohen
“The impact on customer bills is always hard to quantify. We’re certainly not promising that customer bills are going to go down or even increase less rapidly.”
– Open Internet Order applies to Comcast and will to TWC after merger (until 2018)
– Comcast and TWC service areas do not overlap
Secondary Target
- Netflix performance on Verizon and Comcast has been dropping for months
- Netflix Says Verizon Isn’t Slowing Down Its Streams
- Netflix slow on Verizon or Comcast? A VPN might speed up that video
- Comcast and Verizon’s Netflix speed dropped 4 straight months. Charter dropped too.
-Cox, Cablesvision and Google Fiber improved
– Netflix demands go up, do Comcast and Verizon add peering interconnects?
– VZ and Comcast not part of “Open Connect” where Netflix houses servers in ISP to improve service.
– Ars Technica: “Verizon’s broadband Internet access services deliver a pristine user experience to our customers at any time of day on every day of the week.
– J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth, who says he has been talking to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells, and they told him they don’t think cable and telco companies are hampering the company’s video streams.
– Using VPN or third-party DNS may improve Netflix service
– Sand vine Cofounder Don Bowman. If a VPN consistently behaves better, it’s proof that there is something along the path that doesn’t have enough capacity.”
Signals Intelligence
- Netflix To Premiere Final Season Of Clone Wars Animated Star Wars Show March 7
- Orange Is the New, New Black: Netflix’s Next Big Show Is Out June 6
Gear Up
- 3 out of 5 broadband households now have a connected TV
- Americans Are Hungry for Digital Content
- 63 percent of all U.S. broadband households now have a TV connected to the internet, according to a new report from the Diffusion Group (SmartTV or TV with a Roku-type device) (last year 53%)
– Nielsen – now own four digital devices, on average, and spend roughly 60 hours per week consuming content across multiple screens.
– HDTVs, the most popular digital devices, are now present in 83 percent of American households, up from 67 percent in 2011. In addition, 80 percent of homes have a PC with Internet and 65 percent have at least one smartphone, up from 79 percent and 44 percent, respectively.
– A near-majority of U.S. households also now own digital video recorders (49 percent) and gaming consoles (46 percent).
Under surveillance
Front Lines
- Supreme Court to hear broadcasters’ arguments against Aereo on April 22nd
- Apple is reportedly planning a new set-top-box with content from Time Warner Cable
- No Olympics for you: Comcast locks value customers out of Sochi streams
- Video Game High School levels up to Indiegogo to fund its third season
- HBO lands David Fincher and Gillian Flynn’s ‘Utopia’ series
- Amazon leak suggests Xbox One Media Remote to land in March
On Screen
-
Brian: House of cards (4 episodes), Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne
-
Deric A. Hughes: House of Cards, True Detective
Dispatches from the Front
- I found this while working on another project today and thought it would be an interesting tool for all of the cord killers out there. It lets you use your existing coax for all sorts of other things. I think MSRP is about 60 bux, but you need a pair of them to get started.
- The story we did on cord cutting is now posted on our website. http://www.toledonewsnow.com/story/24698708/no-cable-not-satellite-no-problem
On a personal note, my DirecTV bill went up this month so I called and complained. I ended up lowering my package, getting an additional $10/mo off my bill and getting a free DVR upgrade to the Genie with GenieGO.
Jay Schell
- Hi guys! Love your show! Glad you found a way to continue onward! Now to an omission that’s been bugging me for some time. You guys have discussed the wonders of streaming via Chromecast and Airplay as separate choices for the chord cutter, however I found a way to do both on one piece of hardware. I have a Vizio Co-Star running an app called “AirTight”. The Co-Star has recently been updated to support Chromecast-like streaming (casting?) and AirTight provides old-style AirPlay connectivity (no mirroring). So for under $100 you can have both without having to switch inputs! Plus, the Co-Star has lots of other capabilities (Netflix, MGO, VUDU, and WEB SURFING!) Anyhow, I love my Co-Star and thought I should at least mention it as an alternative.
Alex K.
- Monster post. feel free to pick the most relevant bits and let me know if there’s a forum or something i should post to or follow up on. this is fun and exhausting to think about alone!
Baratunde Thurston
Links