March 27, 2008

Comcast and BitTorrent Make Nice

Top cable operator works to improve image with P2P file sharers and lawmakers, and more news.

By Steve Goldstein

News briefing for Thursday, March 27, 2008

Cable360 tipster Brain Clark has warned us that he is being courted by a certain social media technology company in Silicon Valley. Brain can expect an extra twenty from us in his envelope this month.

TODAY'S MUST READ
Comcast and file-sharing software company BitTorrent will soon collaborate on technology that will ease the flow of video files on the cable operator’s high-speed data network, the Wall Street Journal reports. Comcast has admitted to delaying BitTorrent’s peer-to-peer traffic because, it claims, deluges of video file traffic were slowing down its network for all users. These video file slowdowns have been used as evidence by techno-phobe, lobbyist-prone lawmakers who say Comcast practices favoritism and acts as a Web censor. Comcast hopes its work with BitTorrent will defuse this particular public relations nightmare. [Wall Street Journal]

Verizon filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission claiming that cable operators make it difficult for consumers to switch video providers. Cable operators, Verizon says, don’t accept video service cancellations from competing providers. Verizon wants the FCC to force cable operators to behave similarly to voice providers, who generally accept service disconnection orders from their competitors. [WebWire]

Briefly Noted
WWE says its new kids magazine is just the opening salvo in an offensive to capture the 6-14-year-old audience, CableFAX Magazine reports. [Cable360]

A cable technician contracted to work for Charter Communications was arrested for allegedly stealing checks during a service call at a home in Sparta, Wis., the La Crosse Tribune reports. [La Crosse Tribune]

Remember Facebook? Remember the quaint phrase “social media”? Seems like just yesterday Facebook was the hottest Web technology company around. Now it’s up in the musty attic with Prodigy, Netscape, Yahoo and Google…wait—we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The Wall Street Journal reports that Ethan Beard has left his job as director of social media at Google for a job at Facebook. Beard's move is just the latest in a string of executive defections from Google to Facebook. [Wall Street Journal]

Got a tip? Contact sarenstein@accessintel.com and sgoldstein@accessintel.com.

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