Netflix Starts Issuing 'Insurance' ISP Performance Reports

Netflix has released its analysis of how well various ISPs in the US and Canada, the countries it operates in, are doing in terms of sustained video streaming. The company is responsible for a large amount of the data flowing on the internet at any given time in the day so it has a rather comprehensive overview of the performance of service providers in the region.

Netflix announced that it was going to start releasing monthly reports on internet speeds, from its perspective, partly to give its users an informed view, but mostly in response to some ISPs trying to abuse their position and ask Netflix to start paying the 'privilege' of carrying its data.

"As we continue to stream more and more great movies and TV shows, we find ourselves in the unique position of having insight into the performance of hundreds of millions of long duration, high-definition video streams delivered over the Internet," Ken Florance, Director of Content Delivery at Netflix writes.

"The throughput we are able to achieve with these streams can tell us a great deal about the actual capacity our subscribers are able to sustain to their homes," it adds.

Netflix only looked at HD streams since these are the ones that would put enough strain on networks to make the data relevant. Currently, the highest bitrate Netflix offers is 4800 Kbps.

However, the fastest a major ISP in the US could maintain on average was 2,667 Kbps, on Charter. The worst performer was Clearwire with about 1,500 Kbps in sustained streaming.

The numbers are actually quite packed together and there aren't any huge differences between the major ISPs. So the report didn't end up making anyone look that bad.

But that probably wasn't the goal. More likely, Netflix has started showcasing these numbers to highlight any sudden changes in performance, were this to happen.

The subtle threat from ISPs is that they will start throttling certain types of traffic, like Netflix's video streaming, unless the company and others start paying. With net neutrality rules not going anywhere in the US and as defendants of neutrality give up the fight, like Google, ISPs may actually take this path.