Netflix Wavers on Net Neutrality Ruling

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

A bittersweet victory?

You would think that after the Federal Communications Commission reclassified the Internet as a utility under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 that Netflix would be all smiles, giving the implications it has on imposing net neutrality rules. And sure enough, Netflix is putting its happy face on, but the company is also showing signs of what The Wall Street Journal has dubbed "lobbyist's remorse," an appropriate description for what Netflix CFO David Wells had to say on the subject.
It only took a week since the ruling was announced for Netflix to backpedal on its previous position of "relishing" its role as the lead lobbyist for net neutrality.
"Were we pleased it pushed to Title II? Probably not," Netflix chief financial officer David Wells said last week at the annual Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference, according to WSJ. "We were hoping there might be a non-regulated solution."
What's interesting about Wells' statement is that last June, Netflix was pushing the FCC to reclassify broadband as a telecom service, under Title II, just as it's now done. According to Variety, Netflix at the time wrote in a court filing that "Title II provides [the FCC with] a solid basis to adopt prohibitions on blocking and unreasonable discrimination by ISPs. Opposition to Title II is largely political, not legal."
So, what changed? We're not really sure. To be fair, WSJ pulled a soundbyte out of Wells' full statement, which you can hear for yourself here. After conceding that Title II might not have been the ideal path, despite Netflix pushing for it a year ago, the streaming provider is still "super pleased" that there's now a system in place for complaints when or if an ISP plays hardball with Netflix.
"Essentially Internet has become a utility," Wells added. "If you think about people's willingness to drop their broadband, I think there's been some studies that they're willing to drop many other things including buying milk before they dropped their broadband. That's a pretty strong indicator that you've got something that has become, you know, a utility. And in our opinion it was very important to protect those notions."
In semi-related news, Netflix today posted its Speed Index for the month of February. In the U.S., Charter jumped a couple of spots to number six with an average speed of 3.2Mbps, up from 3.14Mbps last month. Verizon FIOS is at the top of list at 3.53Mbps, while Clearwire is dead last at 1.10Mbps, followed by Verizon DSL (1.84Mbps).
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