Big companies like Netflix benefit from their 'peering' deals. Sure costs go up, but they also create a walled garden to keep out any upstart competition.
If that's their attitude, it's short-sighted on Netflix's part. No matter how much money they can throw at ISPs, I guarantee Amazon can throw more. So if streaming video performance comes down to who can throw the most money at ISPs for preferential treatment of their packets, it's hard to imagine Netflix not getting clobbered in that contest.
I think it's a mistake to consider streaming performance the only variable on which success in that business is predicated. Content and customer relationships have to be factored in as well, probably much else.
Your point is valid though. Maybe the conclusion is that such walled gardens aren't useful in competition between established players, merely to make disruption from a a startup of little means but good ideas more difficult?
Big companies like Netflix benefit from their 'peering' deals. Sure costs go up, but they also create a walled garden to keep out any upstart competition.