Comcast: Netflix’s Opposition to Time Warner Cable Deal Is About Shifting Costs to All Broadband Users

Comcast accused Netflix of coming out against the cable operator’s proposed $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable because of a desire to shift delivery costs to all broadband users -- rather than just the streaming-video service’s customers.

Comcast says that Netflix’s opposition is based on “inaccurate claims and arguments.” “Netflix is free to express its opinions. But they should be factually based,” said Jennifer Khoury, Comcast’s senior VP of corporate and digital communications. “And Netflix should be transparent that its opinion is not about protecting the consumer or about net neutrality. Rather, it’s about improving Netflix’s business model by shifting costs that it has always borne to all users of the Internet and not just to Netflix customers.” Comcast reiterated its position that private Internet interconnection agreements have “nothing to do with net neutrality.” “There is nothing unprecedented about our agreement with Netflix,” Khoury said. The deal is very similar to those that companies like Akamai Technologies, Yahoo, Limelight Networks and Google have with companies like Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Level 3 and Sprint, she said.

In fact, according to Khoury, “Netflix approached us for this direct connection between Netflix and Comcast, cutting out the wholesalers with whom Netflix had traditionally contracted and paid for transit. This arrangement was thus about Netflix exercising its market power to extract a more favorable arrangement directly from Comcast than what Netflix had been paying for through third-party providers.”