In the most important news update of the week, Netflix has announced that it will not let the demise of net neutrality destroy the beautiful institution of television marathons. Verizon's lawsuit stirred up a mess recently when laws prohibiting companies from charging more for higher-data websites, mostly because a good chunk of internet data is used by sites like Netflix. Concern mounted that watching copious amounts of video in a short period of time would become unduly expensive, and rightly so; an average-length season of American television can be $34.99 in SD from iTunes. Paying for a digital copy is much more expensive than a flat monthly rate.
Fortunately, Netflix is not willing to let that happen and is prepared to "encourage our members to demand the open Internet they are paying their ISP to deliver," according to the company's shareholder letter. (Our heroes.)
Netflix doesn't think that will be necessary, though, just because of how amazingly consumer-unfriendly price discrimination would be in this case. It makes much more sense for internet carriers to ally themselves with Netflix since streaming good-quality videos is a powerful incentive for consumers to subscribe to more expensive plans. The market will likely work out in our favor. We don't have to panic.
But we appreciate the sentiment. Thank you, Netflix.
Image: Wikipedia
