As all the Internet rage should have told you, Netflix recently started paying Comcast directly to stream to its customers. Netflix is unhappy with what they feel was essentially legalized extortion, but according to Comcast, it was, like, totally their fault.
In what can only be described as a truly heroic display of chutzpah, Comcast put up a post on its corporate blog stating that any Netflix troubles on Comcast’s network were Netflix’s fault. And also that Netflix did this intentionally. Really.
As at least one independent commentator has pointed out, it was not Comcast that was creating viewability issues for Netflix customers, it was Netflix’s commercial transit decisions that created these issues. No ISP in the country has been a stronger supporter of the Open Internet than Comcast – and we remain committed both to providing our customers with a free and open Internet and to supporting appropriate FCC rules to ensure that consumers’ access to the Internet is protected in a legally enforceable way.
Part of Comcast’s commitment to a free and open Internet include hiring people off the street to fill hearings about net neutrality to keep pro-net-neutrality speakers out and making your Netflix traffic count toward a broadband cap while their own streaming service gets a free pass. In other words, Comcast is assuming you aren’t paying attention.
What prompted all this, by the way, was Netflix laying out exactly why your Netflix stream from Comcast was so terrible before they paid up. Netflix makes the point that they’ve always paid for their traffic: In fact, that was why they were paying Cogent. Netflix notes that Comcast wants it coming and going: You pay to access the Internet, and the Internet pays to access you.
Considering how much these two companies hate each other, don’t expect this to be the last time they get into an Internet slap fight. Or, for that matter, this to be the last time Comcast expects us to swallow an outrageous lie.