http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/US-antitrust-investigation-probes-Comcast-TimeWarner-.html
"The Justice Department is conducting a wide-ranging antitrust investigation into whether cable companies are acting improperly to quash nascent competition from online video," writes the Journal, citing unnamed sources.
"Justice Department officials" have "questioned Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and other cable companies about issues such as setting data caps and limits to the amount of data a subscriber can download each month." Spokespeople for the companies and Justice wouldn't comment.
"Iinvestigators are taking a particularly close look at the data caps that pay-TV providers like Comcast and AT&T Inc. have used to deal with surging video traffic on the Internet...
"Internet video providers like Netflix have expressed concern that the limits are aimed at stopping consumers from dropping cable television and switching to online video providers. They also worry that cable companies will give priority to their own online video offering... Comcast fanned those fears in March, when it said that videos viewed on its own Xfinity app on Microsoft's Xbox wouldn't be counted against subscribers' data caps," unlike Netflix, whose boss, Reed Hastings, promptly "accused Comcast of trying to get around federal rules that prevent Internet providers from favoring their own content."
It's "reasonable to assume that Netflix is a principal mover of the DoJ probe," writes Craig Moffett, senior analyst at Bernstein Research in New York, in a report to clients. Netflix, which opposes usage-based pricing, asked for a similar investigation from the Federal Communciations Commission, which "declined," Moffett wrote. He thinks the government is likely to uphold usage-based pricing, though not usage caps.
"Be careful what you wish for," Moffett added: A federal probe could make the cable-Internet companies less likely, not more likely, to share video with Apple, Google YouTube, and other video providers.
Back to the Journal: "The Justice Department is examining whether Comcast's Xbox policy violated legal commitments made by the company in 2011 to secure antitrust approval for its takeover of NBCUniversal... Comcast has said it is complying with the terms of the settlement and isn't discriminating," though it has also suspended the data caps as it searches for other ways to get heavy video downloaders to pay extra.
"Another issue that investigators have asked about is whether cable companies are acting anticompetitively by making viewers have a cable subscription before being able to access certain online programming...
"The Justice Department also is investigating the contracts that programmers sign in order to be distributed on cable systems... [and] questioning whether there are legitimate business reasons for such terms or whether they are intended to stop programmers from experimenting with other forms of online distribution."
"The Justice Department is conducting a wide-ranging antitrust investigation into whether cable companies are acting improperly to quash nascent competition from online video," writes the Journal, citing unnamed sources.
"Justice Department officials" have "questioned Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and other cable companies about issues such as setting data caps and limits to the amount of data a subscriber can download each month." Spokespeople for the companies and Justice wouldn't comment.
"Iinvestigators are taking a particularly close look at the data caps that pay-TV providers like Comcast and AT&T Inc. have used to deal with surging video traffic on the Internet...
"Internet video providers like Netflix have expressed concern that the limits are aimed at stopping consumers from dropping cable television and switching to online video providers. They also worry that cable companies will give priority to their own online video offering... Comcast fanned those fears in March, when it said that videos viewed on its own Xfinity app on Microsoft's Xbox wouldn't be counted against subscribers' data caps," unlike Netflix, whose boss, Reed Hastings, promptly "accused Comcast of trying to get around federal rules that prevent Internet providers from favoring their own content."
It's "reasonable to assume that Netflix is a principal mover of the DoJ probe," writes Craig Moffett, senior analyst at Bernstein Research in New York, in a report to clients. Netflix, which opposes usage-based pricing, asked for a similar investigation from the Federal Communciations Commission, which "declined," Moffett wrote. He thinks the government is likely to uphold usage-based pricing, though not usage caps.
"Be careful what you wish for," Moffett added: A federal probe could make the cable-Internet companies less likely, not more likely, to share video with Apple, Google YouTube, and other video providers.
Back to the Journal: "The Justice Department is examining whether Comcast's Xbox policy violated legal commitments made by the company in 2011 to secure antitrust approval for its takeover of NBCUniversal... Comcast has said it is complying with the terms of the settlement and isn't discriminating," though it has also suspended the data caps as it searches for other ways to get heavy video downloaders to pay extra.
"Another issue that investigators have asked about is whether cable companies are acting anticompetitively by making viewers have a cable subscription before being able to access certain online programming...
"The Justice Department also is investigating the contracts that programmers sign in order to be distributed on cable systems... [and] questioning whether there are legitimate business reasons for such terms or whether they are intended to stop programmers from experimenting with other forms of online distribution."
Source: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/US-antitrust-investigation-probes-Comcast-
TimeWarner-.html
No comments:
Post a Comment