Why You'll Pay For Netflix — Even If You Don't Subscribe To Netflix 292
Velcroman1 writes "At the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, Netflix announced Super HD, an immersive theatrical video format that looks more lifelike than any Web stream, even competing with Blu-Ray discs. But there's a costly catch. To watch the high-definition, 1080p movies when they debut later this year, you'll need a specific Internet Service Provider. Those on Cablevision or Google Fiber are in; those served by Time Warner or a host of smaller providers will be out of luck. But regardless of whether you subscribe to Netflix, you may end up paying for it, said Fred Campbell, a former FCC legal adviser who now heads The Communications Liberty & Innovation Project think tank. 'Instead of raising the price of its own service to cover the additional costs, Netflix wants to offload its additional costs onto all Internet consumers,' Campbell said. 'That's good for Netflix and bad for everyone else in the Internet economy.'"
The real news here... (Score:5, Interesting)
News: Netflix is rolling out higher definition and higher bandwidth video qualities (similar to what is happening with most internet services).
Not news: Higher bandwidth actually requires more bandwidth, so ISP's must upgrade infrastructure.
Slashdot (apparently no better than Fox): You'll all pay more because of Netflix!!! Even if you don't use it!!!
Me: WTF?
Of course, when I saw TFA was on Foxnews.com, I realized what was really happening here.
Re:Infrastructure (Score:4, Interesting)
The only one who need lots of upload speed are content providers -- not consumers. You'll be fine at 10mbit you seeding pirate
Not really a pirate, I just want to host my own website with images and MP3s (that I make...) which just can't happen with any of the upload speeds available to me.
So I have to pay for a webhost just to offer a decent experience. Horray, infrastructure!
Re:Non-Event. Just silly... (Score:2, Interesting)
In Canada, you can get 250 MBit down (15 up) with a 1TB cap for $120. This is without netflix having a direct influence. The author is not just a troll, he's also an idiot.
Re:US Only? (Score:5, Interesting)
So, let me get this straight... An ISP can either take advantage of a free peering arrangement (paying only connection fees), or accept a free caching appliance, and ultimate ends up SAVING money through reduction in transit, but somehow this is Netflix making non-subscribers pay for SuperHD? TFS is bullshit, pure FUD.
Almost every ISP in Canada is already on Netflix OpenConnect, qualifying for SuperHD. Some of them are huge, like Bell, some of them are tiny little indie ISPs, like Colba. Many of them didn't do anything specific to get on OpenConnect, but got it for free by already participating in a peering point that Netflix is on, or using a transit provider on OpenConnect.