Hey Comcast: Stay Out of My Browser, Part 1

You probably already know this but I wanted to write it. I've probably already written something quite like it.

Television and internet are ever converging. We're getting to an age (and might be there, depending on your definition) when viewing "television" can legitimately take place without a television. Digital cable and satellite TV services use browsers to navigate their offering. And cable providers like Comcast are whining and crying and scared as hell.

It comes down to this basic premise: given adequate programming online, savvy consumers can subscribe to an internet service and not but a cable package.

Comcast's fear is justified. Comcast is, at its core, a cable company. They also happen to provide internet service. They can, in general, squeeze a lot more money out of cable than internet. With basic cable subscriptions and add-ons like sports packages, HBO, Showtime, and pay-per-view a cable provider can easily make well over $100 per month on TV bills alone.

General residential internet service costs about $50/month or less if I remember correctly (the guy who lives downstairs subscribes to the internet while I pay for yard trimming).

If I were the cable provider I wouldn't want to lose the business where I make $100 from a customer in favor of another subscription that she already pays $35 for in addition to the first service. I understand that logic.

But what's Comcast's response? They want to be able to limit your access to web-based video sites like Netflix, Hulu, and others (including broadcast network sites that almost all show full episodes of many shows). Instead of providing us with more bandwidth (perhaps at a higher price), with which an actual television revolution might occur, Comcast is trying to suppress this development in order to line its own pockets. Rather, to keep its pockets lined.

With more bandwidth we get higher-bit streaming and faster downloads, two things that are huge for television viewing. The ideal would be to be able to wirelessly stream full 1080 (or higher) resolution video on your personal device at all times, but the nature of internet distribution does not allow for this at this time. I constantly get jumps up and down in video quality, and I imagine it's only worse in more areas more densely populated than Memphis. Unless you have a fiber-optic connection, which costs mad bank. So we need faster, more constant, reliable internet connection. We need a consumer connection where two or more people on the same home network can stream different shows at full resolution and not encounter any playback problems.

Instead, Comcast claims that it has the right to limit what you can view on their connection. They want to monitor you watching "Wilfred" on hulu.com and lower your connection speed to a point where it's not even worthwhile to watch.

Yikes.

I'll give more thoughts on this in the next few days. Consider this the place-setter.