The Erosion Of Net Neutrality

The issue of net neutrality is becoming more and more central to the future of TV delivery over the internet. Gradually, in one location after another, the concept that services shouldn't pay ISPs for the delivery of their content is being eroded.

First came the ruling in favour of Comcast against the FCC in the USA. Now is a ruling in Canada by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission that Bell Canada can charge a per GB rate for service delivery.

In the UK, a market in which a public broadcaster such as the BBC gets, essentially, subsidised by ISPs whilst developing commercial technology (Canvas) is a market that is both unfair and inefficient. The massive loss of revenue to the Government from eCommerce from companies such as Google (Ireland) and eBay/Paypal (Luxemborg) gives added impetus to this situation, since very little money from the content side of the internet is returned to the public purse to pay for improved infrastructure.

However, the coverage of the Canadian ruling is disingenuous - having to pay for delivery might well work in favour of smaller content services, not against them, in my opinion.