Netflix Losing Streaming Rights to Movies, TV

[Nigh Invulnerable]

SNIPPOed for convenience

Let me get this straight. Comcast went from UNLIMITED to LIMITED via a bandwidth cap and you don't think they will continue going in that direction? What is your justification for that?

Further, if the bandwidth cap isn't likely to be hit, then what is the point of having it?

The bandwidth cap was put in place to prevent people from putting excessive demand on a finite system. The average user will never hit the cap, but there are plenty of people who were constantly downloading music, movies, games, etc. when there was no cap and their excess caused the average user to experience issues with slowdown and such.

Also, concerning the part I bolded. As an employee in sales/account management, I am quite aware of policies that are in the pipeline in the distant future, and further tightening the cap is not one of them. They are looking for ways to improve the technology all the time though, so perhaps an unlimited cap will return and people who insist on downloading hordes of files can go back on their merry way. For the time being, bandwidth hogs must suffer with a measly 250 Gig cap and maybe reconsider downloading that 12th game for the month. Honestly, even when I've been at my highest use, I don't think I've gone much over the halfway point towards the cap.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

I fail to see why the bandwidth cap would decrease as the technology and capacity increases, but sure, whatever you say. I suppose "greed" is the correct answer if you want to be a cynic about it all. Also, having spent an entire week while unemployed watching the entirety of a TV series on Netflix I can safely say that you'll likely not hit that cap.

Also, free is free, man. I can just watch whatever I want via On-Demand or DVR, so I don't sweat the commercials these days.

It's basically the principle of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". The infrastructure for the Phone and Cable companies is very expensive once the overall system is in place there is little need to upgrade equipment unless it fails as part of a maintenance cycle. Implementing new technology will always lag behind it's development.

It also doesn't help that the majority of areas in the United States have basically two options for High-speed broadband service: the cable company and the phone company. Sure you have wireless providers, but the caps on them are much smaller and the pricing scheme is much worse.

We're rapidly re-approaching the age where our internet usage will be priced by the number of hours used like AOL used to be.

I suspect the price per hour/Gig model may be down the road, but for the time being I have a hard time understanding complaints of a 250 Gig cap. What the crap are you doing all day? Streaming video while downloading music to listen to while playing WoW? Sheesh.

 

[Epona]

SNIPPOed for convenience

Let me get this straight. Comcast went from UNLIMITED to LIMITED via a bandwidth cap and you don't think they will continue going in that direction? What is your justification for that?

Further, if the bandwidth cap isn't likely to be hit, then what is the point of having it?

The bandwidth cap was put in place to prevent people from putting excessive demand on a finite system. The average user will never hit the cap, but there are plenty of people who were constantly downloading music, movies, games, etc. when there was no cap and their excess caused the average user to experience issues with slowdown and such.

So the bandwidth cap was put in place to prevent people from downloading movies (Netflix) and games (Steam). Hmm...seems like that was my point. Thanks for confirming it.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

I saw this happening a while back. Netflix was making too much money for other companies to not want to try to get a larger cut of it. Once again, customers get screwed over. I bet there will be people defending this by saying Starz will create more competition.

 

[Raithnor]

I suspect the price per hour/Gig model may be down the road, but for the time being I have a hard time understanding complaints of a 250 Gig cap. What the crap are you doing all day? Streaming video while downloading music to listen to while playing WoW? Sheesh.

250GB/month for Household, take the average activity of a daily user and multiply that by 2-4 or more depending on the family. Also there are people who don't watch television and instead prefer to stream video.

Thanks not even account for things like OS and Software updates.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

I suspect the price per hour/Gig model may be down the road, but for the time being I have a hard time understanding complaints of a 250 Gig cap. What the crap are you doing all day? Streaming video while downloading music to listen to while playing WoW? Sheesh.

250GB/month for Household, take the average activity of a daily user and multiply that by 2-4 or more depending on the family. Also there are people who don't watch television and instead prefer to stream video.

Thanks not even account for things like OS and Software updates.

I know plenty of college students who share a house/apartment who never reach that cap, or even come close. Besides, the cap is not actually enforced unless you're consistently going way over. I suspect some people on the site here are above average in their use.