The back and forth between these two companies has entertained if nothing else. However since they are “partners” you would expect them to get along now. That is not the case. Netflix openly opposed Comcast planned take over or merger with Time Warner Cable. Now Comcast has dropped a bombshell. Netflix is slow not because of the ISP (Internet Service Provider) but because Netflix has slowed down its own video streams. In a blog post Comcast says that Netflix knew what they were doing and they sabotaged its own streams just so they would look good. They go on to say Netflix did all this just before making a deal with Comcast for better access to its pipeline:
As at least one independent commentator has pointed out, it was not Comcast that was creating viewability issues for Netflix customers, it was Netflix’s commercial transit decisions that created these issues. ~Comcast’s Jennifer Khoury
The facts that backup Comcast’s claims are that Netflix sent its traffic to Cogent. Cogent is a broadband provider that plays middle man. In this case they are between Comcast and Netflix. The problem is that Cogent didn’t have the capacity to handle all that Netflix traffic. If this is true than that means Comcast and possibly other ISPs have nothing to do with the Netflix speed slowdowns. That would also make the deal that Netflix signed with Comcast make perfect sense. They basically paid to get rid of the middle man. The same middle man that who in this case was the bottle neck of its distribution.