Behind the Netflix PAC: a broadband power play

Netflix has formed its own political action committee called Flixpac, and my sources indicate that the biggest issues it plans to tackle will be how to let folks share their movies on social networks and the more nuanced issues of broadband competition, network neutrality and what defines television in an IP age.

The first issue requires straightforward lobbying to change the Video Protection Privacy Act (VPPA), while the second issue is one that will require the strategic planning of a continental invasion. In conversations with insiders in DC and at Netflix, the video streaming service’s agenda has become clear. Get rid of the Video Protection Privacy Act and help push an agenda to keeps content flowing across the web. Issues such as Comcast not counting video streamed via the Xbox against its cap and the Verizon deal to buy spectrum from the cable companies all have implications for Netflix’s business model. In the first example it brings up the issues of creating what essentially becomes a private version of the Internet to sling Comcast video on demand content around in a manner that won’t penalize the consumer for streaming.