[naviwins]

Uhm... NO!

You pay for guaranteed bandwidth within Comcast network. Not the whole internet.

Which gets back to the whole issue at hand. If Netflix wants to improve their service they need to pay for better transit. So they cut out the middleman and go directly to the source of the majority of their viewers.

This is no different than Twitch, Google, or Microsoft direct peering with Comcast. They see the value in allowing people to access their services as fast as possible, so they spend the money to do so.

This is internet 101. Netflix just wants everything for free.

[mikeash]

If "not the whole internet" then why does Comcast provide any bandwidth outside of their own network?

I accept that they can't guarantee bandwidth once traffic gets out of their network, but as long as both sides and everything in between has adequate bandwidth, shouldn't I be able to use it?