This is why we need Internet regulation: Comcast blocks HBO Go app from working on PS4

                                      

If you needed evidence of why the FCC’s crackdown on ISPs is necessary, Comcast is once again providing it in spades. Two days ago, Sony announced that HBO’s streaming service, HBO Go, is now available on the PS4. The app launched on the PS3 a year ago, but hasn’t been available for Sony’s latest console until now. Unfortunately, Comcast customers apparently can’t activate the service. The comment thread for the announcement is full of complaints from Comcast users angrily noting that the service can’t be used on either the PS3 or PS4 if you’re a Comcast subscriber.

As Techdirt notes, this has been an ongoing issue for Comcast users, but the company’s justification for the problem has changed. Last year, when asked why the PS3 or Roku couldn’t use HBO Go, Comcast hand-waved technical issues and a need to work with partners to ensure compatibility.

This year, the company’s description of the situation is even more curt: “HBO Go availability on PS3 (and some other devices) are business decisions and deal with business terms that have not yet been agreed to between the parties. Thanks for your continued patience.”

Roku eventually got approval last December, but Sony devices are still locked out.

The empowered consumer fallacy

It’s not clear to me if the Title II regulations proposed by the FCC would explicitly prevent Comcast from blocking HBO Go. One thing that likely will help, however, is the FCC’s move to preempt municipal broadband limits. Increased local competition and the availability of Google Fiber could collectively help break the logjam.

Comcast’s belief that it can cast its refusal to provide HBO Go service to customers as a business decision illustrates one of the most serious failures of Internet governance. Today, it’s perfectly legal for Comcast to refuse to provide a service that its customers pay for. Sony customers have been complaining for a year that Comcast won’t provide HBO Go, and HBO has apparently been less-than motivated to solve the problem. Thus, we have a situation where the consumer has paid Sony for the PlayStation, paid HBO for the right to stream content, paid Comcast for the right to have an Internet connection, and yet is disallowed from using that service under the guise of “business decisions.”

While it’s true that giving consumers a choice between various Internet providers isn’t the same thing as mandating consumers have the right to consume any legal service that they pay for, it still provides additional protection. Customers who have a meaningful choice between equivalently fast ISPs can at least choose to change providers. In the current system, however, Comcast wields all the power — and the company knows it.