Netflix now has peering/interconnection deals with the four biggest terrestrial broadband providers in the U.S., with the SVOD service reportedly carving out an agreement with Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) in June.
According to GigaOm, the two sides are now executing on the engineering fundementals of the deal. As it was in previous Netflix interconnection pacts, there's no word on what the company is paying TWC in order to deliver its customers better streaming video performance over the Internet service provider's network.
The No. 2 cable company is, of course, in the midst of trying to merge with Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), which carved a peering agreement with a reluctant Netflix earlier this year. Since the proposed Comcast/TWC merger is foundationally supported by the lack of overlap between the two companies' networks, it would seem that any infrastructural changes to TWC's broadband service as part of the Netflix agreement wouldn't be a waste of time should the merger gain federal approval.
Then again, with the Federal Communications Commission currently examining such interconnection deals, it's hard to assess the permanence of these arrangements.
According to Netflix's ISP Speed Index rankings, its streaming performance over TWC's network has been steadily improving of late, registering an average of 2.16 Mbps in July vs. 2.01 in January.
For more:
- read this GigaOm story
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