Roku: We Ain’t Afraid of No Caps
Sure, most of us can get pretty fired up over the thought of a monthly 250 GB bandwidth cap, but what about the companies that provide online video services? After all, as Om pointed out, the cap isn’t about excessive bandwidth usage as much as it is about stymieing online video sources like Hulu, Netflix and Amazon.
Roku, which makes the Netflix player, isn’t worried about the cap. The $99 set-top box maker is more of a facilitator than a provider, but its entire business is built upon delivering video to you over your broadband connection, so a cap could impact its sales.
“It really doesn’t give me a lot of concern,” said Tim Twerdahl, Roku’s vice president of consumer products. “It’s unfortunate that the limitless possibilities are being capped by an ISP, but it has no direct business impact on us.”
Twerdhal said that the 250 GB cap is something Roku’s users aren’t currently hitting. He’s almost sanguine about the reality of bandwidth caps because he believes technology will outpace them. “We are looking at the usage of our box and the bitrates,” said Twerdahl. “We’ll be introducing same visual quality at lower bitrates in the future.” Roku currently streams content at four bitrates 500kb/sec., 1 MB/sec., 1.6 MB/sec., and 2.2 MB/per sec.
These low bitrate deliveries are the reason other online video companies are not worried as well. They are taking a wait-and-see approach, comfortable that the cap is sufficiently high enough to not have an immediate impact. One industry source told me that their company figured you’d have to stream the current (non-HD) video offerings 8 hours a day, 7 days a week before you hit the cap.
So are online video providers being lulled into a false sense of security? Once a cap has been set, it’s easy to keep lowering it to squeeze a few more bucks out of consumers, and the advent of HD delivery online means more bits to take a bite out of your monthly allowance.
To that Twerdahl says, “There are lots of things going on with codecs and bitrates that make caps not as relevant as they may appear to be.”
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I am the CEO and founder of http://www.travelwizard.com
and I am very worried. Our travel guide features 1000’s of HD travel videos that range from 3 minutes to one hour in length. We don’t charge for viewing the videos, the purpose is to entice our audience to travel. See http://video.travelwizard.com. If bandwidth limitations are imposed it sets a terrible precedent. It will punish multitudes for the acts of a tiny minority. Mark my word–if this is allowed it will open up Pandora’s box.
Bob Mc Millen CEO http://www.Travelwizard.com and http://www.travelwizard.tv
Bob Mc Millen on September 7th, 2008 at 8:13 am - Permalink
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Comcast's Data Cap Might Be Technically Bearable, But it's Consciously Limiting on September 7th, 2008 at 11:30 am - Permalink
[...] NewTeeVee has a short piece up on Roku’s stance on bandwidth caps that Comcast have introduced in the US The cap is 250GB per month, which is quite large by international standards, but has already been discussed as a limiting factor for video streaming services. “It really doesn’t give me a lot of concern,” said Tim Twerdhal, Roku’s vice president of consumer products. “It’s unfortunate that the limitless possibilities are being capped by an ISP, but it has no direct business impact on us.” [...]
Real World Video Compression » Roku not worried about bandwidth caps on September 7th, 2008 at 12:26 pm - Permalink
Really hope Netflix is correct on this one. I’m currently using the Roku box and an Apple TV for most of our video rental needs. I’d say both boxes are active every evening and part of the day on each weekend. I’ve done some loose math indicting this wouldn’t bring us up to any currently rumored caps, but I’m still wary.
Webomatica on September 7th, 2008 at 12:58 pm - Permalink
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A Data Cap Might be Technically Bearable, But it’s Consciously Limiting »TechAddress on September 7th, 2008 at 1:30 pm - Permalink
The caps are a non-topic. Om has had this reaction in his comments many times already. Give it up, finally.
Wolke Snow on September 7th, 2008 at 1:42 pm - Permalink
Without some type of penalty for beahvind badly, we will always have a very few that stuff it up for the many.
CAPs are an easy way to police this, but yes it could be abused.
But unfortunatly, they ARE needed.
What if we had no speeding laws/limits, and we had 100 times the crashes, and your mum got killed.
To bad, at least you can drive fast….
What side are you on?
James Gardiner on September 7th, 2008 at 2:28 pm - Permalink
[...] lately about how the 250 GB cap affects sites like Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix. NewTeeVee has an interesting article on how it also affects set-top boxes, like the Roku Netflix player, which also use bandwidth to [...]
Worries about the Comcast cap « Tizzyblog’s Weblog on September 7th, 2008 at 3:00 pm - Permalink
The Cap is bad for me as a consumer http://www.myphillynetwork.com/content/chucking-round-shiny-things-roku and makes me wonder how long do we have for FIOS. Thankfully as one garden closes, another public park opens…
Anthony Farrior on September 7th, 2008 at 3:02 pm - Permalink
All Roku is doing is pointing out that there’s not enough compelling content via Netflix and that they are streaming non-HD. ;)
Dave Zatz on September 7th, 2008 at 4:03 pm - Permalink
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Everyone needs to calm down about Internet Caps on September 7th, 2008 at 5:10 pm - Permalink
“One industry source told me that their company figured you’d have to stream the current (non-HD) video offerings 8 hours a day, 7 days a week before you hit the cap.”
So what does that work out to be for a high quality, full 1080p HD stream? The average person watches 4.5 hours of TV a day, right? The average household has their TVs on 7.5 hours a day?
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-09-21-homes-tv_x.htm
And people aren’t worried about caps?
totoro on September 7th, 2008 at 5:44 pm - Permalink
he’s absolutely correct. i download a lot of tv and movies, including 720p content, and at scene bitrates i rarely pass 100GB, let alone 250.
kyle on September 7th, 2008 at 7:43 pm - Permalink
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Roku: Comcast Limit Means Nothing (Lie) | tinyMash on September 7th, 2008 at 9:06 pm - Permalink
[...] Read the rest of this post Print all_things_di220:http://voices.allthingsd.com/20080908/roku-we-aint-afraid-of-no-caps/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Roku: We Ain’t Afraid of No Caps”, url: “http://voices.allthingsd.com/20080908/roku-we-aint-afraid-of-no-caps/” }); Sphere Comment Tagged: Amazon, Chris Albrecht, Hulu, Netflix, NewTeeVee, Om Malik, Roku, Voices, bandwidth, bandwidth cap, online video service, set-top box | permalink [...]
Roku: We Ain’t Afraid of No Caps | Chris Albrecht | Voices | AllThingsD on September 8th, 2008 at 12:02 am - Permalink
Why would you be worried? As soon as the competitors start advertising that they are just as fast AND unlimited then the caps will be raised.
1mbps ~= 300gb
John on September 8th, 2008 at 12:17 am - Permalink
My ISP (Frontier Communications) is about to impose a 5GB cap on broadband users during a 30-day billing cycle. That’s upload/download combined.On the “bright” side, the services they offer supposedly won’t count against the cap. I thought that was nice-as-pie. Yes Sir, the thought of caps makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
“What, me worry?”
CapCrap on September 8th, 2008 at 6:07 am - Permalink
[...] maker of the Netflix-streaming box (reviewed here), isn’t too concerned, according to NewTeeVee. Tim Twerdhal, VP of consumer products, says: “It really doesn’t give me a lot of concern. [...]
CrunchGear » Archive » Bandwidth caps don’t concern some video providers on September 8th, 2008 at 8:37 am - Permalink
[...] are lots of things going on with codecs and bitrates that make caps not as relevant as they may appear to be.” (Up yours, [...]
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