Beskylder Netflix for urent spill

There is more to Netflix’s success in being the world’s leading on-demand over the top (OTT) video service than good content and cool technology. To grow to more than 50 million members in more than 40 countries requires a shrewd public reations (PR) and policy game to paint itself as the fragile underdog to regulators, journalists and the public while it fiercely lobbies for regulation against the telecom and content industries.

Netflix’s recent 3rd quarter financial letter to shareholders provides salient examples of its powerful double-talk. The company notes that even though it missed some of its numbers for the US, “There is no change to our view on the long term attractiveness and US market size of Internet television, and no change to our view of the ultimate size of our US membership.“ We find it interesting that the company that so maligns broadband providers has managed to build a successful, profitable and growing business on top of their networks. Indeed if broadband networks were not up to speed in the US and around the world, Netflix would still be a DVD-by-mail company.

Bogus speed index to shame and fame operators