
UK Government: will not support Net Neutrality - justsee
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-17/u-k-government-to-snub-bbc-google-over-web-access-ft-reports.html
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Isofarro
I suppose that will end up giving ISPs the right to charge the BBC for
handling their video stream traffic. Which effectively means private companies
siphoning off BBC license revenue for their own pockets.

I really hope that if they go ahead with this that they clear all barriers to
allow the BBC to run it's own ISP, and compete on selection of netural
traffic. At least that way, people get a choice how many times they pay for
the same content.

What good is video content streaming from a public broadcaster if you have to
pay private organisations again to see that content you've already paid the
BBC for?

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frou_dh
The TV license is currently only required for watching traditional TV, live,
isn't it? I haven't paid it for years, and exclusively use the on-demand BBC
iPlayer website every so often.

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axod
Don't you feel like you _should_ get a license? Regardless of wether you're
legally supposed to.

The sheer quality of programming they put out. Buy a license.

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frou_dh
I don't watch often enough. I'd consider microtransactions in the iPlayer, but
not a flat £145 per year.

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eftpotrm
Which is from memory less than Sky charges for content that includes adverts
and is (IMHO) of vastly lower quality. Certainly far less of Sky's content is
original productions.

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frou_dh
I'd never get Sky. In fact I convinced a family member to cancel theirs
becuase they were getting little value from it.

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alextgordon
This is not such a big deal as it would be in the US. We have a lot more
competition, so "let the market sort it out" is more or less a reasonable
position.

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arb99
Are there really not that many isps over in the US?

(although thinking about it, whenever I hear about US isps it is always the
same few companies (comcast comes to mind))

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Xuzz
Here in San Francisco, we really have Comcast and Astound (a localish one). I
don't know of any except those two.

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mechanical_fish
Two is nice to have. I'm back to two cable providers plus DSL, but last year I
had the choice of Comcast, or something slow, pricey and wireless. And that
was in the Boston suburbs, not the mountains of Idaho or something.

Network infrastructure in the USA is startlingly primitive and monopolistic.

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papaf
This will disrupt the chances of any new media startups in the UK. It is also
good news for companies like Sky that compete with the BBC and have an ISP
service.

Sky got good value for money donating to Ed Vaizey last election:
[http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/100927/...](http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/100927/vaizey_edward.htm)

