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Netflix is now worth more than Comcast

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Re: Netflix is now worth more than Comcast

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is aggregated data on this, based on millions of data points: https://opensignal.com/reports/2018/01/usa/state-of-the-mobi... . Average latency for all four carriers is under 70 ms. As to bandwidth caps: for $100 including fees, you get unlimited on Verizon, which has a 22 GB soft cap per line (in practice, you can use way beyond that). Your point about duopoly is completely divorced from facts. The cell carrie…

>> What else do you use that is 10 times better than it was a decade ago? Google Search? Gmail? Facebook? iOS? Heh, ironically, the "wired" internet is surely 10X or more faster than a decade ago. Anecdotally, I have a 1 Gbps connection now; year or two ago I had a 250 Mbps connection, and 2-3 years prior to that it was 50Mbps. Ten years ago it was, what, 5Mbps or 2Mbps.

You (and I) are one of the lucky few who live in area with gigabit internet. The average speed is 55Mbps (https://broadbandnow.com/report/2018-fcc-international-data-...).

But the price of cellular data has come way down. For instance when the iPad was first introduced, it was only available in the US on AT&T and was $25 for 2Gb of data per month. Now I'm paying an extra $20 a month on T-mobile for unlimited data for my iPad.

The cellular iPad wasn't even worth it for me until I could get unlimited data for $20. For that amount the extra convenience of not having to tether and basically having a second phone is worth it since you can get and receive regular phone calls to your paired cell number from an iPad even if your phone is dead.

Re: Netflix is now worth more than Comcast

#132

It would make total sense for Netflix to be worth more than Comcast. They provide a worthwhile service while Comcast does not. Netflix provides content, even producing some itself. Comcast does nothing but media distribution. A clever 12 year old can do global media distribution on their free time for free. And do it better than Comcast and other large corporations can. They built their empires when distribution was…

... comcast also is an ISP.

An incredibly terrible one.

Re: Netflix is now worth more than Comcast

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hulu and CBS All Access have an ad free tier. I had CBS All Access when I had Sling but DirecTVNow has all of the networks live in my market (NBC,ABC,CBS, Fox, CW) I could deal with the ads and awful on demand features of DTVNow for the one or two shows I watch on CBS. For everything else I have Hulu and the Cwl

I still contend that in many ways, traditional cable subscriptions offer more for your dollar than a pile or cord cutter products. At the very least, the competition is closer than one might be led to believe. Funny enough: My friends who never see television ads, I sometimes feel like they miss out on a lot of meme-worthy things. Sometimes I'll reference a commercial (like Grammarly, which is pasted all over YouTube…

I'm a cable cutter (I refuse to call myself a cord cutter), but I agree. I would have Netflix regardless of whether I had cable or not but I wouldn't have DirecTVNow or Hulu ($47/month) even with the bogus fees and when you consider the bundled discounts, cable is not a bad deal for most people. My dad came up and he fell in love with my Roku TV so I got him one for Father's Day. I had to go down and set it up for him because between the individual TVAnywhere logins, the flaky WiFi (they have both slow DSL and cable internet service long story), it was really confusing for him.

On top of that, they understand when cable goes out it just happens. But if thier internet went out and they couldn't watch TV, they would be really frustrated. Besides they live in a small town with a 150GB cap on thier DSL and a 300GB cap on thier cable internet. My family blew right through that when we stayed with them for the summer.

Re: Netflix is now worth more than Comcast

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> What else do you use that is 10 times better than it was a decade ago? Google Search? Gmail? Facebook? iOS? Heh, ironically, the "wired" internet is surely 10X or more faster than a decade ago. Anecdotally, I have a 1 Gbps connection now; year or two ago I had a 250 Mbps connection, and 2-3 years prior to that it was 50Mbps. Ten years ago it was, what, 5Mbps or 2Mbps.

You (and I) are one of the lucky few who live in area with gigabit internet. The average speed is 55Mbps ( https://broadbandnow.com/report/2018-fcc-international-data-... ). But the price of cellular data has come way down. For instance when the iPad was first introduced, it was only available in the US on AT&T and was $25 for 2Gb of data per month. Now I'm paying an extra $20 a month on T-mobile for unlimited data f…

Nice. Myself, I did not see price drops -- I've been paying ~ $100/mo for cell phone plan (5GB data) for some years now -- 3 years at least maybe 5 years or more.

Re: Netflix is now worth more than Comcast

#135
post #122
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need 400-500GB to accommodate who ? According to Comcast, median Xfinity data usage in 2H 2017 was 131 GB: https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/data-usage-average-... . That's going to be squarely within the range of 5G (analysts are guessing around 200GB caps at first). Also, expect to see video content be zero-rated (it makes technical sense--watching Netflix from one of Netflix's co-located CDNs puts a lot…

> According to Comcast, median Xfinity data usage in 2H 2017 was 131 GB Given their recent push for data caps (and make money off of overages), I'm sceptical of their numbers. They have a pretty obvious incentive to misrepresent (if not understate outright) the value to make their caps appear generous. Also, is median (same as 50th percentile, right?) really the right statistic to consider? I'm not sure any one numbe…

Agreed, I think the histogram would be bimodal, split between people that solely watch cable TV and cord-cutters that solely stream.

Re: Netflix is now worth more than Comcast

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You (and I) are one of the lucky few who live in area with gigabit internet. The average speed is 55Mbps ( https://broadbandnow.com/report/2018-fcc-international-data-... ). But the price of cellular data has come way down. For instance when the iPad was first introduced, it was only available in the US on AT&T and was $25 for 2Gb of data per month. Now I'm paying an extra $20 a month on T-mobile for unlimited data f…

Nice. Myself, I did not see price drops -- I've been paying ~ $100/mo for cell phone plan (5GB data) for some years now -- 3 years at least maybe 5 years or more.

In the US?

I pay a total of $180 a month for 5 phone lines unlimited data on each + an iPad, unlimited 512Kbps tethering on each + 10Gb of high speed tethering on one for my son who uses his cell phone for his only internet. This is with T-mobile. They also throw in a family Netflix plan (4 simultaneous streams) with it.

Re: Netflix is now worth more than Comcast

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole idea of "cord cutting" hurting cable is insane. If you don't subscribe to cable and you subscribe to internet based streaming services, you're still getting content delivered to your home via either a cable "cord" or the phone company. Netflix at most gets $12/month per subscriber. Comcast will get $80 - $110/month for internet service. Comcaast also has either no competitors in their market or at most one.…

Comcast makes $5 per subscriber in profits per month. Netflix with $12 per month revenue might end up making $5 in profits pretty soon. That is all that matters. Also Netflix is not a Comcast competitor. Healthy Comcast network helps Netflix too. It is like saying SpaceX is bigger than Disney. Comparison makes no sense. Netflix is not gonna hurt cable as much as ipod did not hurt FM radio. So I think people need to t…

Netflix can have users world-wide, while Comcast's non-content-business is restricted to certain geographic areas. That matters.

Also, the comparison makes sense as long as Comcast is purporting to be anything other than a dumb pipe.

It's frequently the case than an industry gets disrupted by a company that's "not a competitor".

As for me, I stopped listening to FM radio when I got an ipod. Not a competitor? Uhuh.

Re: Netflix is now worth more than Comcast

#138
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The whole idea of "cord cutting" hurting cable is insane. If you don't subscribe to cable and you subscribe to internet based streaming services, you're still getting content delivered to your home via either a cable "cord" or the phone company. Right now, people pay $150+ for a package with all the TV channels, while you can get the broadband for $50 or so. Cable companies could dramatically raise prices on the ba…

A basic HD cable package on top of my old Comcast Internet subscription added MAYBE $20 to the cost of my Internet plan due to the bundle discount. Oh, and Comcast threw in HBO for free, which is worth about $15 a month. To get the equivalent channel access as such a service, you've got to pay for YouTube TV or PlayStation Vue or the like, and you're looking at $40 a month there. Obviously, prices vary by where you a…

True, Netflix had the first mover advantage, but that's about it. Netflix will not have most of the entertainment content that is available in the world. As long as people have diverse interests, they have to continue paying subscription costs in one way or the other; instead of cable subscriptions it will be streaming subscriptions.

Re: Netflix is now worth more than Comcast

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating manure has 15 billion in net income last quarter, whereas this new "filet mignon" had 185 million. Just because people are currently eating shit a lot doesn't mean the outlook for them is any good.

According to those numbers, lots more people want shit, or they are willing to pay more for it. Not sure what you're getting at. P.S. A little thing called "sports" is compatible with shit, but not filet mignon. And after years filet mignon has make negligible progress in this area. Also, filet mignon is shipped inside shit tubes, and probably will be for a very long time. P.P.S. I hate shit analogies.

Shit's been around a long time. People are just learning about filet mignon. And not everyone has the equipment to have it properly prepared at home, yet. As people get that equipment, look for sales of shit to drop.

Re: Netflix is now worth more than Comcast

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice. Myself, I did not see price drops -- I've been paying ~ $100/mo for cell phone plan (5GB data) for some years now -- 3 years at least maybe 5 years or more.

In the US? I pay a total of $180 a month for 5 phone lines unlimited data on each + an iPad, unlimited 512Kbps tethering on each + 10Gb of high speed tethering on one for my son who uses his cell phone for his only internet. This is with T-mobile. They also throw in a family Netflix plan (4 simultaneous streams) with it.

Canada. Looks like unlimited cell data plans are not a thing here, at least not yet.
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