Verizon Public Policy on Netflix

Mon Jul 14 07:25:42 UTC 2014

On Sun, Jul 13, 2014 at 4:00 PM, Brett Glass <nanog at brettglass.com> wrote:

> [...]
>
> If Netflix tries to use its market power to harm ISPs, or to smear
> us via nasty on-screen messages as it has been smearing Verizon, ISPs have
> no choice but to react. One way we could do this -- and I'm strongly
> considering it -- is to start up a competing streaming service that
> IS friendly to ISPs. It would use the minimum possible amount of
> bandwidth, make proper use of caching, and -- most importantly --
> actually PAY Internet service providers, instead of sapping their
> resources, by allowing them to sell it and keep a portion of the fee.
> This would provide an automatic, direct, per-customer reimbursement
> to the ISP for the cost of bandwidth. ISPs would sign on so fast
> that such a service could BURY Netflix in short order.
>
> --Brett Glass
>
>
That would be awesome!

If you find a way to obtain premium content
that subscribers will pay for that doesn't include
incredibly restrictive licensing terms that require
you to account for every stream watched (including
those streamed from downstream cache devices),
I'm right there ready.

Unfortunately, I suspect you'll find the rights holders
who own the shows aren't willing to let their videos
be served through a CDN that doesn't maintain
draconian control over every stream (ie, that
doesn't allow third party, uncontrolled caching).

So, you may be able to build such a CDN; but
the only content you may find that you can
populate it with are cute cat videos recycled
from last week's Youtube footage--which nobody
wants to pay for.  :(

Matt