‘Without the telcos, there is no Netflix’: the battle between streamers and broadband

Telecommunications executives are looking at booming broadband use largely driven by video. Streaming video is one of – if not the main reason – for the explosion in data use across networks in the past 10 years, and platforms like Netflix are some of the main culprits. That amount of streaming across the globe is leading to big infrastructure costs for internet and mobile broadband providers, at a time when customers are used to large or unlimited downloads at a low price and are unwilling to pay much more. In 2022, 16 telecommunications officials in Europe signed a joint statement calling for tech companies such as Google, Meta and Microsoft to pay their fair share, stating that European telecoms companies spend €50bn (£44.5bn) annually on building and maintaining full-fibre broadband and 5G networks. As the European Commission began considering whether to force the streamers to pay, European and British telecommunications companies stepped up their lobbying at the annual Mobile World Congress in February. “Without the telcos, without the network, there is no Netflix, there is no Google,” said Michaël Trabbia, chief technology and innovation officer for France’s Orange. Netflix’s co-CEO Greg Peters answered that it would amount to a tax on the streamers, and would lead to a reduction in content. He argued that it would amount to charging twice for the same infrastructure – once to the streamers and once to the customers who use it. Meta, meanwhile, labelled the proposal “nonsense”, saying there was no credible evidence of an investment gap in networks.