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Hastings: Charter-TWC Deal a ‘Tremendous Positive’

January 20, 2016

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Originally appeared in Multichannel News
January 19, 2016
By: Jeff Baumgartner

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings volunteered on the OTT giant’s Q4 earnings interview Tuesday (Jan. 19) that Charter Communications’s pending acquisition of Time Warner Cable would represent a “tremendous positive” for the over-the-top video industry.

That of course was in reference in part to Charter’s current settlement-free peering policy, and its pledge to extend that policy to the systems it’s poised to acquire from Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Netflix, which has already offered support for the deals, notably operates in a paid peering model with TWC, with Bright House benefiting from the TWC-Netflix agreement. Netflix also has paid peering deals with Comcast, Verizon Communications and AT&T.

Charter’s proposals represent a “huge step forward for U.S. policy [with respect] to OTT,” Hastings said.

Read the full article here.