Cogeco (TSX:CGO, Forum) CEO Louis Audet told reporters Wednesday that Canadian cable companies who object to Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX, Forum) traffic sucking up between 30% and 40% of broadband bandwidth are off-base with their wishes that the company would be taxed for that traffic to pay for broadband expansion and upgrades.
“Our fear is that if governments intervene in what is allowed or not on the internet, at some point we risk ending up with censorship,” he said shortly before the company AGM.
The company revealed a new logo and said its US presence was being counted on to bring growth to the company.
“The climate is right. We have already demonstrated our ability to acquire under-exploited assets and to turn them into growth machines,” he said.
REACTION:
Stock was largely unchanged, but has been down around 10% since November.
OUR TAKE:
Memo to the cable companies: You already charge for that bandwidth, when we pay what can only be called exorbitant fees for our internet and cable access, and the right to use it for whatever the hell service we please.
Just because your customers access the internet in large numbers for streaming video (something you widely advertise as a good reason to use your service) rather than your increasingly awful cable offerings, doesn’t mean you get to double dip. Netflix isn’t making people use their allotted bandwidth, people are choosing to use that bandwidth for Netflix, and if Netflix wasn’t there they’d use it for Bit Torrent or YouTube instead.
If you don’t want people to use Netflix, maybe stop advertising its availability as a reason to sign a contract with you.
It’s probably worth noting that the cable companies own pieces of Shomi and CraveTV, which are in competition with Netflix, though I know of nobody who uses either.
In short, cut it out, you greedy bastards. And go Cogeco.
--Chris Parry
https://www.twitter.com/chrisparry