What happened in Vegas: Comcast, Netflix peering agreement talks got serious at CES

The peering agreement confirmed by Comcast and Netflix had been discussed by engineers for both companies for months, as consumers reported continued declines in their video streaming quality. But the turning point came at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), when the CEOs of the sparring companies got involved in those talks alongside engineers, a mark of how significant this deal is: CEOs almost never get involved in peering agreements.

At the annual Vegas tech confab, both Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings first met with senior engineers and staff to discuss an interconnection agreement, reported and confirmed by the companies. Having the top executives of the company involved shows two things: one that this is an important strategic deal for both companies and also that the technical questions about how the Internet should work are only part of the equation -- business considerations matter, too.