The only thing in the article which undermines that reading of the facts is this line: “Roku eventually got approval last December, but Sony devices are still locked out.”
That implies that Comcast customers are allowed to use the HBOGo service, but only with certain, pre-approved by Comcast, clients. That might run afoul of the new Net Neutrality rules, especially if the protocols, ports and bitrates are identical, regardless of of the client used. It’s one thing for a cable provider (like Time Warner) to refuse to participate in an unrelated network’s non-broadcast offerings (like the Disney Channel app), it may be another for the provider to say people running the app on an iPhone can use it, but people using the Windows Phone version cannot. We’re in uncharted territory here! n Darren From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2015 7:22 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Comcast vs. HBO Go on PS4? Based just on a quick Google search (so I could be mistaken), this appears to be total bullshit. This is how HBO Go describes itself on their website: “Get unlimited access to all your favorite HBO® shows, hit movies, sports, comedy and more, plus bonus features and behind-the-scenes extras. It’s all free with your HBO subscription through participating television providers and available on your favorite devices.” In other words, it’s exactly the same as complaining that a WISP doesn’t “give” its customers ESPN3. HBO Go appears not to be an OTT service with individual subscriptions. It appears to be an extra, Internet based service that comes only with HBO from a cable provider. So the complaint appears to be that Comcast has not offered HBO Go to its cable customers who have HBO. It seems to me that is different from “blocking” HBO Go to your Internet customers, as the article claims. From: Mike Hammett <mailto:af...@ics-il.net> Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2015 7:08 PM To: Animal Farm <mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: [AFMUG] Comcast vs. HBO Go on PS4? http://www.extremetech.com/computing/200479-this-is-why-we-need-internet-regulation-comcast-blocks-hbo-go-app-from-working-on-ps4 Do we know anything about this? The article above runs over Comcast with a bus, but does little to technically explain why\how Comcast is blocking them.
