Battle Inside The Neutral Zone

Next time somebody tells you there's too much government oversight these days on the internet, recall this week's little spat between News Corp. and Cablevision.

News Corp. and Cablevision are currently stuck in a classic cable vs programming "we pay too much, you pay too little" fight. But this time around News Corp. is flexing more muscle by banning Cablevision Internet users from accessing Hulu too.


When the clock struck midnight on Saturday, Cablevision customers could no longer watch FOX on their TV. That's because News Corp. (which owns FOX) and Cablevision couldn't come to an agreement on the fees that Cablevision should pay News Corp. It's something that's happened before with other networks and other cable providers but the new twist is that News Corp. is using their stake in Hulu to ban Cablevision Internet users from accessing FOX content on Hulu as well.

Yeah, arbitrarily cutting off web sites to cable customers just because they have a dispute with the cable company.  That's a disturbing new trend there, but we're being told that if we put in any sort of rules that protect customer access to the net, content providers will go out of business and there will be no internet.  Does it look like content providers like News Corp. and FOX are worried about losing revenue here to you?  Or are they happily throwing around their muscle in order to win higher fees from cable companies who then pass those fees along to you anyway?

Sounds like there should be some basic consumer protections for the internet given its increasing importance in our lives. Sadly, Republicans and even a few Democrats are doing everything they can to see that nothing like this ever gets done.  Too much money in blackmailing customers, you know.