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I believe a better comparison would be Comcast also having a Netflix competitor… let's call it Xfinity Stream. And then they make Netflix have extra costs (say,
by mook 6y ago
I believe a better comparison would be Comcast also having a Netflix competitor… let's call it Xfinity Stream. And then they make Netflix have extra costs (say, having plans that have low monthly bandwidth caps that limit how much you would be able to use Netflix) but exclude their own service from having those costs. Essentially, making an artificial floor on competitor prices where their own service can ignore that floor.
… Let's just say there's a reason my example is oddly concrete.
In your example, as far as I know consumers do not actually interact with the power plants, and have no choice on what utility company to use; to do so would require duplicate infrastructure. In the (either) app store case there is — I can still install the Microsoft mail client instead of the Apple or Google ones.
- Closi 6y agoOr to create a more direct comparison, that Comcast fully blocks Netflix unless they give 30% of fees and launches their own service which is heavily subsidised. This wouldn’t work now, but if it was done when Netflix was growing it would have severely impacted their ability to compete.
- zaroth 6y agoOr to create a more direct comparison, it would be like Netflix distributing content inside the Xfinity OnDemand app and using Comcast’s streaming platform to do it, and paying Comcast a percentage of the revenue. Which is exactly how Xfinity OnDemand works. Apple’s creation, development, and control of the App Store is akin to Comcast’s Xfinity OnDemand. They are both retail stores owned, operated and curated by their private enterprise creators in order to sell some first party but mostly third-party content.
- WWLink 6y agoThey did try to do something like that, where Netflix counted against your bandwidth cap but Comcast's own IPTV service did not. Maybe it was AT&T? I do recall it being a thing.