Cable executive: 1Gbps broadband is only useful for piracy

Emil

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Comcast CEO Brian Roberts last week showed off his company's latest and greatest tech, which can download all 23 episodes of "30 Rock" Season 5 – close to nine hours of content – in 1 minute and 39 seconds. He then showed the speedtest.net result measuring the throughput, which indicated the connection was running at 1084.71Mbps.

It seems that at least one cable executive did not see the point. This individual is part of a group that still hasn't accepted the fact that the only way to fight piracy is to embrace the Internet. Here's the relevant excerpt from Multichannel:

Some take a cynical view of what high-bandwidth services will be used for. One very senior cable-tech exec, discussing the Comcast 1-Gbps demo, said bluntly, "I just don't see any other application for that other than piracy." (I'm not identifying him because the conversation was not a formal interview, and he wasn't expecting to be quoted.)

While some cable companies understand that their customers will eventually want to consume all their content directly from the Internet, the above statement shows that some still don't get it. If cable companies could provide the same content that pirates can get, in the same amount of time, there would be no reason for piracy.

Paying to get TV through cable and Internet through cable is becoming more and more redundant. The Internet encompasses what cable TV already provides. There are only two reasons why everyone doesn't simply pirate everything off the Internet: legality and accessibility. The cable industry has the power to satisfy both of those requirements. The industry should work together to make it happen, otherwise it will slowly be eroded.

Imagine paying one price for your broadband connection and the ability to use the Internet to legally watch whatever content you choose. If cable companies could pull this off, Netflix wouldn't have a market to work with.

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I guess this person is ignorant on the fact that streaming content such as netflix and hulu is on the rise. Once higher speeds become the norm then more HD content the requires allot of bandwidth will be available, I guess it's a good thing that there's still people in that company that thinks otherwise.

If those greedy cable companies would offer customized channels of what you want instead of fixed channel packages with stuff people don't want then most would not have to turn to the internet to download the shows they want to watch without having to pay for extra useless channels. We didn't have a choice back then but now we do thanks to the internet, and this exec is upset that they can't control us anymore.

It'll come a time when comcast will start seeing big losses on TV broadcasting that they'll have to offer a streaming service online to recoup. By then companies such as hulu and netflix will be too big for them to compete.
 
I guess downloading TV shows, movies, and music after purchasing on Amazon or iTunes isn't going to benefit from high speed download rates. Or downloading games off Steam after purchasing, and most of this content is 5GB or more. So clearly the guy is right...
 
He kinda has a point. For the average user, your broadband should be fast enough to allow you to stream the highest quality movie you want with no interruptions. 1 Gbps is probably overkill for it, but eventually quality will increase, so 1 Gbps will be standard.

Five years ago people thought I was weird for having a 10 Mbps connection.
 
"If cable companies could provide the same content that pirates can get, in the same amount of time, there would be no reason for piracy."

Heh...was that meant to be a joke? Pirates pirate because they want stuff for free. I can guarantee you that if BitTorrents charged for downloads, pirates would find another way to get their stuff for free.
 
TomSEA said:
"If cable companies could provide the same content that pirates can get, in the same amount of time, there would be no reason for piracy."

Heh...was that meant to be a joke? Pirates pirate because they want stuff for free. I can guarantee you that if BitTorrents charged for downloads, pirates would find another way to get their stuff for free.
Pirates still have to pay the ISP for Internet.
 
Emil said:
TomSEA said:
"If cable companies could provide the same content that pirates can get, in the same amount of time, there would be no reason for piracy."

Heh...was that meant to be a joke? Pirates pirate because they want stuff for free. I can guarantee you that if BitTorrents charged for downloads, pirates would find another way to get their stuff for free.
Pirates still have to pay the ISP for Internet.

True pirates hack their neighbors' lines.
 
Uh, I pirate simply because it's the most convenient way of obtaining what I want, not necessarily because I want it for free. Since I signed up with Steam for instance, my pirating of games has ceased completely, although I'm slightly more discriminating of what games I purchase, and only buy when there's a substantial discount. if there were similar choices available for movies and television shows I'd use them too.
 
Emil said:
TomSEA said:
"If cable companies could provide the same content that pirates can get, in the same amount of time, there would be no reason for piracy."

Heh...was that meant to be a joke? Pirates pirate because they want stuff for free. I can guarantee you that if BitTorrents charged for downloads, pirates would find another way to get their stuff for free.
Pirates still have to pay the ISP for Internet.

You're trying to use logic in a discussion with TomSEA about piracy, it doesn't work.
 
"Uh, I pirate simply because it's the most convenient way of obtaining what I want, not necessarily because I want it for free."

Redbox movies are a dollar each. Netflix gives you online streaming for 8 bucks a month with a sizeable catalog. iTunes and Amazon sell damn near every song recorded for .69 cents to .99 cents each.

Now one more time - what's your excuse to pirate?
 
TomSEA said:
"Uh, I pirate simply because it's the most convenient way of obtaining what I want, not necessarily because I want it for free."

Redbox movies are a dollar each. Netflix gives you online streaming for 8 bucks a month with a sizeable catalog. iTunes and Amazon sell damn near every song recorded for .69 cents to .99 cents each.

Now one more time - what's your excuse to pirate?

I know I pre-screen albums en masse, but many of the good ones I've replaced with hard copies. The bad ones I delete, because why would I waste space on my iPod with crappy music? And yeah, I could use YouTube, but it's a lot easier to grab 400 songs and listen to them at my leisure, from anywhere, than having to sit at a computer just to hear if I want to buy an album or not. I know many people do the same thing for games.

As for movies, RedBox still isn't as convenient as downloading (legally or not), because first off you have to have one nearby, and then you have to drive there twice, once to pick up the DVD, and once to return it. And of course, this assumes they have the movie you want. Netflix is very convenient, but not for someone who doesn't consume movies regularly.
 
pirated stuff often enough does not complain about which computer it is being played or run on, It also is easier to change its file type so it can be played on a particular/or format specific viewing device.
 
You know what would be really convenient? A per-view rental system that was accessible anywhere. So say I'm going on a long car trip. I spend a little money to rent a couple of movies, DL/stream them digitally, and then they're gone when they're done. It's a lot easier than RedBox, it's really cheap, and it's really convenient. Netflix is the only current option that combines both a reasonable price and convenience, but since I don't watch many TV or movies, I'd rather PPV at a really low cost than just pay monthly.
 
"..but since I don't watch many TV or movies, I'd rather PPV at a really low cost than just pay monthly."

Don't think it will be long before you'll see that example1013.

"pirated stuff often enough does not complain about which computer it is being played or run on, It also is easier to change its file type so it can be played on a particular/or format specific viewing device."

Jeezus guest - do you think you could come up with a more pathetic excuse for stealing stuff? Just admint "it's because I get it for free" and that's something at least we all understand and agree on (the reasoning that is).
 
Right, because there could never be a need for in the future so let's not look to expand it now.

Kind of sounds like things Bill Gates used to say about hard drives not be used beyond a certain amount...

No one know what kind of technology will be made in the future. That future would be closer than anyone realizes.
 
TomSEA said:
"..but since I don't watch many TV or movies, I'd rather PPV at a really low cost than just pay monthly."

Don't think it will be long before you'll see that example1013.

"pirated stuff often enough does not complain about which computer it is being played or run on, It also is easier to change its file type so it can be played on a particular/or format specific viewing device."

Jeezus guest - do you think you could come up with a more pathetic excuse for stealing stuff? Just admint "it's because I get it for free" and that's something at least we all understand and agree on (the reasoning that is).

Once that happens, I think you'll see a nice decrease in the amount of piracy. Say you charge 20 cents for one streaming of a movie. Much more reasonable than paying a dollar for a day. Why would I want to pay a dollar and have something for 24 hours when I only need it for 3? That made sense back before streaming, but now? No way.
 
Meant to say, "Kind of sounds like things Bill Gates used to say about hard drives not being used beyond a certain amount...

No one know what kind of technology will be made in the future. That future could be closer than anyone realizes."
 
My guess is that very senior cable-tech exec works for Cablevision. They don't seem to be embracing new technology like Comcast does. One can only assume that Comcast has projected that in the future its customers will use and perhaps need a 1Gbps internet connection. Kudos to Comcast for being pro-active!!
 
The Bill Gates quote is fake so stop using it.

When I do pirate is because I don't have a legal way to buy them, in Ecuador there's no way to buy/rent music, movies or tv shows online. On the other hand 99% of the software I use on my Mac or iOS devices is paid for and I'm happy to do so.
 
"I just don't see any other application for that other than piracy."
He has a point, though clearly doesn't see where technology is headed, or just wants to keep people under his thumb. There's allot of content online and chances are, in the not so distant future all NEW content will be online. If was the senior exec i would embrace this new technology, and by embrace i mean find ways to exploit it, before someone with greater foresight does and replaces me :(
 
"I just don't see any other application for that other than piracy."
He has a point, though clearly doesn't see where technology is headed, or just wants to keep people under his thumb. There's allot of content online and chances are, in the not so distant future all NEW content will be online. If was the senior exec i would embrace this new technology, and by embrace i mean find ways to exploit it, before someone with greater foresight does and replaces me :(
At some point I have to ask, "what exactly is the difference between illegally downloading a Blu-Ray, and legally streaming a Blu-Ray, at least with respect to necessary bandwidth"?

I mean really, who made this statement? Um let's see, it was an executive from a cable company. There couldn't be any ulterior motive there, or could there?
 
TomSEA said:
"If cable companies could provide the same content that pirates can get, in the same amount of time, there would be no reason for piracy."

Heh...was that meant to be a joke? Pirates pirate because they want stuff for free. I can guarantee you that if BitTorrents charged for downloads, pirates would find another way to get their stuff for free.

And MPAA and RIAA are supposed to be that obese why? Ah, they protect artists' interests! Then why does Apple frown at a store employee trying to start an union? Back on topic, do I NEED 12 crappy movies a week sharing from a finite number of scripts over and over, and one GOOD one a month? Or 95% of music artists being the conveyor belt type "singing" the same garbage melodies so that I really lower my standards to become norm? Nope! Give me quality, and I'll personally paypal the artist actually singing about anything but clubs, rides, trying to get laid, or wanting to be a billionaire! Films ans music are supposed to be art in the first place, not business. History isn't too friendly to things getting too big for their own good.
 
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