Netflix (NFLX) CEO Hastings is 'App'-alled at Comcast (CMCSA) Streaming Restrictions
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Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) shares are echoing investor sentiment Monday following an unusual request by CEO Reed Hastings to his cable provider: He really wants to watch HBO Go.
Late Friday night, according to the NY Post and Variety, Hastings posted to his Facebook page: "Comcast: I'm paying you a lot of money for HBO, so please let me watch HBO Go on my TV. I want my HBO Go."
Hastings later said he is evaluating Comcast's different cost structures: "Once I get HBO Go on my Xbox, then it will be strange that streaming 'Game of Thrones' from the HBO Go app on my Xbox will count against my Comcast Internet cap, but when I watch those same 'Game of Thrones' streams through the Comcast app on Xbox, over the same connection to my Xbox, then it will not count against my cap."
Basically, Hastings questioned why watching the same media on the same player from the same provider over the same Wi-Fi network but through two different applications causes one to be free and one not to be. That is the question, Reed. That is the question.
Last week Comcast made an announcement HBO Go, Netflix, and other apps made outside Comcast's own VOD offering on Xbox would fall outside the bandwidth caps for its broadband subs. Whether Hastings really does or does not want to watch HBO Go is irrelevant; he's making an argument against cable providers keeping an iron fist over what content their subs can watch.
Shares of Netflix are off nearly 2 percent Monday.
Late Friday night, according to the NY Post and Variety, Hastings posted to his Facebook page: "Comcast: I'm paying you a lot of money for HBO, so please let me watch HBO Go on my TV. I want my HBO Go."
Hastings later said he is evaluating Comcast's different cost structures: "Once I get HBO Go on my Xbox, then it will be strange that streaming 'Game of Thrones' from the HBO Go app on my Xbox will count against my Comcast Internet cap, but when I watch those same 'Game of Thrones' streams through the Comcast app on Xbox, over the same connection to my Xbox, then it will not count against my cap."
Basically, Hastings questioned why watching the same media on the same player from the same provider over the same Wi-Fi network but through two different applications causes one to be free and one not to be. That is the question, Reed. That is the question.
Last week Comcast made an announcement HBO Go, Netflix, and other apps made outside Comcast's own VOD offering on Xbox would fall outside the bandwidth caps for its broadband subs. Whether Hastings really does or does not want to watch HBO Go is irrelevant; he's making an argument against cable providers keeping an iron fist over what content their subs can watch.
Shares of Netflix are off nearly 2 percent Monday.
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