It shows how cheap national bandwidth here in New Zealand really is and that any ISP charging us an arm and a leg for domestic bandwidth (Same price as international bandwidth? Please!) is basically grossly overcharging us. But while annoying enough, that's actually besides the point for this article. More importantly: Sky's deals with the ISPs are exclusive deals, meaning, these ISPs are now prevented from offering similar deals for other online streaming services. Thus, upstarts like Quickflix are essentially prevented from entering the market on an equal footing. New Zealand ISPs are all too willing to violate the principles of net neutrality. Whenever some money is waved in front of them, principles go out the window and it's time to spinelessly roll over for the sake of the almighty dollar.

A very good article today on the NZ Herald web site about how Sky's exclusive deals are locking out possible competitors in the emerging video streaming market. Specifically: Sky has struck special deals with a number of ISPs in New Zealand, which gives customers un-metered access to Sky's online streaming services. Sounds, good, doesn't it? Free online TV for consumers, what could possibly be wrong with that?Well, a number of things:This is not the first such violation. A while back already I noticed a number of special deals for mobile applications: Check your Facebook account for free! and similar. Basically, Facebook and Twitter access from mobile applications wouldn't incur those astronomical data charges that mobile carriers like to inflict on us, while any competition to Facebook and Twitter... well, they would be out of luck. Who wants to use them when accessing their sites from a mobile device would cost so much money?But we, the sheeple, cannot look past the fact that companies never offer things for FREE (sp) out of the goodness of their heart. We don't like to think stuff like this through, we don't realize that any time we avail ourselves of such a 'generous' offer, we are shooting ourselves in the foot, wrapping ourselves ever more tightly into chains of dependency and limit our own choices for the future.If we want to pay less for online streaming, checking our facebook account from mobile apps, and so on, then we should let our ISPs and mobile providers know that we will always choose the one with the cheapest data charges, one which doesn't overcharge for domestic bandwidth, and not one who violates net neutrality and gives some content a preferential treatment, thus being an accomplice in the systematic removal of choice and competition in the market.Sometimes, you need to look a gift horse in the mouth and realize that this horse is as bad a gift as that famous wooden one in Troy.Other related posts: