Comcast Charges Level 3 Communications For Netflix Streaming Movies [Comcast Erects "Internet Toll Booth" For Level 3's Streaming]

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And so we begin, folks–the opening salvo in the great streaming wars is beginning, and didn’t we just finish one format war? Yeah, Blu-ray versus HD DVD, remember that? And that’s going to seem like a four year old’s playground slapfight by the time all this is said and done.

Seems that Comcast is wheeling out special charges to Level 3 Communications, the group that handles Netflix’s massive array of streaming video options. Sure, this makes sense on the surface: Comcast has its own line of streaming video options–it works with Blockbuster on some of them–and as such, likely doesn’t want to lose business to Netflix, especially when Netflix is using Comcast’s pipes both coming and going; Netflix uses Comcast to deliver the content whilst Comcast users use their Comcast internet connection to access the content.

So this in turn jams up Comcast’s pipes, forces them to look like the bad guy as they jack up the rates to keep their pipes open in the first place, and meanwhile, Joe Consumer takes it in the shorts–or at least seems like he does–as Comcast jacks up its prices and yet provides nothing in return that he wasn’t already getting.

But Level 3 isn’t taking this lying down, saying that they’ll be demanding government intervention on this one. Level 3 says that this is a violation of net neutrality principles, in which Comcast is engaging in behavior that shuts everyone else out of the market in favor of its own product line. And it certainly looks like that’s what they’re doing.

Comcast, meanwhile, suggests that this isn’t a sneaky, underhanded blow to shut everybody else out of the market, but rather a simple commercial dispute. Level 3 uses epic piles of bandwidth, after all, and should be charged accordingly.

It’s a bad scene all the way around, and untangling this mess is going to be a nightmare that will likely last for years. I’m leaning toward the side of more broadband companies with faster speeds, and putting Comcast in one role or the other, not in both.

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