LVLT - Level 3

[Guest ValueCarl]

(3) is turning into a Forrest Gump football game again, with Jennie screaming in the back ground, "Run Forrest, run" and the Tom Landry depicted football coach at first saying from the sidelines, "That's the STUPIDIST SOB I've ever seen, but he can sure run!" LOL

 

Another Graham, Dodd like, Buffett role modeled, deep value investor curmudgeon, Markel Corp., has stepped up to the plate. I cannot stop believing that, these value curmudgeons are circling their wagons around the MISCREANTS who have permeated this stock.

 

Run (3), run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;D Show the people a modern era "Corner," one that is sustainable after wards, for the financial history books! It looks like Markel dumped their Comcast too!   

 

http://seekingalpha.com/article/253775-tom-gayner-s-amazingly-profitable-long-term-stock-picks?source=qp_article     

[txlaw]

brker_guy, thanks for the response on LightSquared.  I also went back and read some of the earlier posts on this thread -- I forgot how much useful information is back there.

 

Check this out: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/19/us-air-force-raises-concerns-over-lightsquareds-lte-network-mes/ .  Yeah, Falcone may have his work cut out for him figuring out a way to keep the service from interefering with GPS.

 

The pdf you linked to jogged my memory about the new ATC satellite services.  I remember reading an order about it a couple of years ago and looking into a company called Terrestar.  So I did some research this weekend and found that there is some interesting stuff going on with S-band spectrum being bought up.

 

Check this article out: http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_17429573 .

 

Dish Network (DISH), controlled by Charlie Ergen, recently bought up the assets of a Craig McCaw-backed company called DBSD out of bankruptcy, including some S-band spectrum licenses.  At the same time, Echostar (SATS), also controlled by Charlie Ergen, owns a bunch of Terrestar debt and equity.  Terrestar, which also has S-band spectrum, filed for bankruptcy, and Ergen initially had SATS offer to buy Terrestar, but SATS has since withdrawn the offer by mutual agreement.  SATS appears to have decided to buy Hughes Communications instead, which designs hardware for ATC operators, including Terrestar and Skyterra (Lightsquared).  

 

Things get even more interesting because when I looked at the pre-bankruptcy SEC filings for Skyterra and Terrestar, they appear to be quite closely aligned, having cross-licensed their spectrum to each other or bought capacity from each other in some way.  Harbinger also helped recap Terrestar a while back too.

 

So here's a potential way this plays out.  Lightsquared is worried about the GPS problem, so they buy Terrestar out of bankruptcy, paying Ergen off in full for at least the debt and agree to use SATS for ATC infrastructure.  DISH licenses spectrum to Lightsquared and also buys broadband from Lightsquared at wholesale rates -- only their cost is actually lower to buy broadband at wholesale rates because they own part of the spectrum (S-band spectrum) that is used in the Lightsquared network.

 

Perhaps there's still room for a LTE-ATC network after all.  Which is good news for us who want consumers to be able to bypass the incumbents.

[txlaw]

From the Netflix 10-K:

 

Changes in how network operators handle and charge for access to data that travel across their networks could adversely impact our business.

 

We rely upon the ability of consumers to access our service through the Internet. To the extent that network operators implement usage based pricing, including meaningful bandwidth caps, or otherwise try to monetize access to their networks by data providers, we could incur greater operating expenses and our subscriber acquisition and retention could be negatively impacted. For example, in late 2010, Comcast informed Level 3 Communications that it would require Level 3 to pay for the ability to access Comcast’s network. Given that much of the traffic being requested by Comcast customers is Netflix data stored with Level 3, many commentators have looked to this situation as an example of Comcast either discriminating against Netflix traffic or trying to increase Netflix’s operating costs. Furthermore, to the extent network operators were to create tiers of Internet access service and either charge us for or prohibit us from being available through these tiers, our business could be negatively impacted.

 

Most network operators that provide consumers with access to the Internet also provide these consumers with multichannel video programming. As such, companies like Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision have an incentive to use their network infrastructure in a manner adverse to our continued growth and success. While we believe that consumer demand, regulatory oversight and competition will help check these incentives, to the extent that network operators are able to provide preferential treatment to their data as opposed to ours, our business could be negatively impacted.

 

Looks like Netflix has weighed in on the dispute.

[Guest ValueCarl]

txlaw or anyone, can you help me with determining the answers to this as respects Markel Group's converts tied to a recent Seeking Alpha link I posted?

 

What's the accounting rule for reporting convert values? We know the stock closed at 98 cents on 12/31/2010. The Seeking Alpha report citing a 33.67 percent return since 12/31/10 leaves something to be desired.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=LVLT&a=11&b=1&c=2010&d=11&e=31&f=2010&g=d

 

At $15MM principal amount, they are reporting a $16.725MM "VALUE" on that date. Either an 11.5 percent premium compared to their principal, or an 11 percent discount from their principal face amount, depending upon how one looks at it. 

 

Which strike price and maturity year do you think they took advantage of, and how can one be certain? $1.235 or $1.80?

 

 

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1096343/000119312511032314/d13fhr.txt

 

Level 3 Communications        CONV          52729NBM1    16725 15000000 PRN        SOLE            15000000

 

[Guest ValueCarl]

txlaw, you have done some really nice research this weekend. It reminds me of something Jim Crowe told his owners recently about "high frequency spectrum" left over from their Telcove purchase.

 

Jim's engineers are working hard at finding a use for that valuable frequency. ;D  

 

Go (3), starting again tomorrow, and by all means, don't give up the chart stiffy this time! Let it rise early, and hold onto it all day long including the close! LOL

[txlaw]

Carl, not sure about which converts they bought.  Perhaps someone with access to a Bloomberg terminal can figure out which ones Markel likely bought.

[Cardboard]

ValueCarl,

 

"Go (3), starting again tomorrow, and by all means, don't give up the chart stiffy this time! Let it rise early, and hold onto it all day long including the close! LOL"

 

I think that you are into silver. I don't know since when, but this story reminds me how difficult it was about 10 years ago for silver to break $5 and gold $300. There were big short positions who seemed capable to control the price down. Prices were so low that they nearly bankrupted the entire industry and many producers hedged or shorted their future production at these low prices. Many discouraging days until it finally worked out. Inventories, supply and demand equation eventually matter.

 

We seem to be in that kind of mode here again with (3). People keep talking about huge capacity being available, but not thinking at all as to what will happen in just 2 or 3 years with massive demand growth and no supply addition. What I find encouraging is that the number of folks realizing what is next is growing by the day.

 

Cardboard

[brker_guy]

Dropped 911 Calls from the "Can You Hear Me Now" Network Operator, folks:

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-18/fcc-asks-verizon-about-alarming-number-of-dropped-911-calls-in-snowstorm.html

[Guest ValueCarl]

Cardboard,

 

If my memory is not mistaken, even "The Greatest One of Them All," TIRED waiting for the mother load of silver he had tackled to pay the handsome multiple sums we have seen since your mention of $5.00 oz. prices. Message to the board: Investing and speculating is not for the tired and weary, nor poorly capitalized since that the greatest rewards are multiplied by Father Time whose children are PATIENCE. 

 

That being said, Hi Ho (3) along with Silver!  ;D And by all means, let these men with roots extending from Graham/Dodd, these Super Value Investors with Buffett knowledge, incantations, and inspirations; circle their wagons around the miscreants including using the law to make them COUGH UP whatever was never "BORROWED" and remains totally "PHANTOM" and "NAKED" previously DESTROYING the supply/demand factors which once "governed" securities upon its owners. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td4RHvyAFsM

 

<A classic little saying about short selling on Wall Street is: “He who sells what isn’t his’n, must buy it back or go to prison.” The origin of the saying is unknown, but by 1898 it was attributed to financier Daniel Drew (1797-1879). >

[txlaw]

I'm a little selfish when it comes to Mr. Market recognizing the value of (3) because I hope to continue to add to my position at low prices after my other positions work out.  ;D

 

[Guest ValueCarl]

Follow "crowd psychology." Don't do it! Broadband like Silver is a mirage with Walter Scott foolishly betting on the supply/demand come.  :-X 

 

 

Level 3 shares closed at $1.46 on Friday, spurred by exposure gained because of its high trading volumes and narrower losses during its fourth quarter. The stock market was closed Monday in observance of Presidents Day.

A Level 3 spokeswoman declined to comment Monday.

In hindsight, the recent success is considered paltry for Omahans who invested heavily in the company because of its local ties. Up until 1998, Level 3, then called Kiewit Diversified Group, was a subsidiary of Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc. before it was spun off to become an independent company.

The collapse of Level 3's stock from a high of $130.25 a share in March 2000 has cost Omahans billions of dollars.

Walter Scott Jr., the retired chairman of Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc. of Omaha and chairman of Level 3, is the company's top individual stockholder with about 28.6 million shares. His holdings alone have lost more than $4 billion.

Other Omahans invested in Level 3 because of its local roots and still cling to their shares, even though the company is saddled with debt from building its international fiber-optic network, said Russ Kaplan of Russ Kaplan Investments.

Kaplan said much of Level 3's rise originally was because of a “crowd psychology” and people thinking shares “would keep going up forever.”

“I think right now it is pretty much a speculative stock,” he said. “Unless it's money you want to gamble with, I wouldn't do it.”

Analysts and credit-rating firms also remain sour on shares of Level 3.

 

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110222/MONEY/702229951/0

[Guest ValueCarl]

A notice to all ivi TV subscribers and interested parties.

 

As you may be aware we have been in a fight to provide affordable Cable TV for the Internet.

 

Today the Southern District Court of New York granted a preliminary injunction in the case 1:10-cv-07415-NRB. We will be appealing the decision in the second circuit but in the interim we must shut-down most of our broadcast channel offerings.

 

We believe the court made an error in the ruling and will be appealing the decision supported by many public interest groups. But we cannot do it alone. In return, we ask that you support them. If you can, visit Public Knowledge and/or EFF to leave a donation.

 

In the interim we are suspending invoicing for ivi Air and ivi Pro, so it is not necessary to cancel subscriptions. As soon as we can restore the channels we will resume the subscriptions from that point forward.

 

We will continue to carry a number of channels and will be adding channels from broadcasters and content providers as we grow.

 

Thank you for your support,

The ivi TV team

 

http://www.ivi.tv/

 

Among those filing for the injunction were NBC, CBS, Fox, ABC, The CW, PBS, Tribune, Univision, and Fischer, as well as the commissioner of baseball and studios associated with the major nets/owned station groups.

 

 

 

"NAB is gratified to learn that the federal court in New York has preliminarily enjoined ivi from continuing its illegal retransmission of broadcast signals over the internet,"s aid National Association of Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton. "In granting the injunction, the court found that ivi should not 'be allowed to continue to steal plaintiffs' programming for personal gain until a resolution of this case on the merits'. We agree."

 

In addition to the copyright infringement claim, there is the question of whether the retransmissions online are subject to the FCC's retransmission consent payment regime under the Communications Act, which the judge did not get into. The FCC has yet to decide whether streaming services are cable systems subject to payments and access regs. But it suggested in the Comcast/NBCU order that oneline service lineups that compete with cable are in MVPD's future, and put online access conditions on the deal, though with enough caveats to make it palatible to Comcast.

 

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/464294-Judge_Enjoins_Ivi_TV_From_Streaming_Station_Signals.php

 

 

[brker_guy]

Carl, that's sad to see what is happening to www.ivi.tv.  In the mean time, the NAB is not going after these guys at AMZN:

 

http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/22/technology/amazon_streaming/index.htm

[txlaw]

YouTube in talks to stream live NBA and NHL games.  See http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-22/google-s-youtube-says-it-s-negotiating-to-broadcast-live-nba-nhl-games.html .

 

Very interesting development.  Do you guys know if Google has the technical capability to do this on its own in a manner that would be competitive with (3)'s Vyvx service? 

[brker_guy]

TxLaw, VERY INTERESTING!!!!!!  Thanks for sharing. 

 

YouTube in talks to stream live NBA and NHL games.

 

With Google's financial muscles and technical strength, they can do almost anything.  The question is do they want to do it?  Encoding video is part science and part art.  The science of it is very complicated and can be very capital intensive.  This is not your typical YouTube uploaded content video.  You have to FullHD cameras encoding these videos in real-time and stream those contents to a CDN for streaming.Do they own enough "metro fiber" and "long-haul" miles to cut down on the latency?  This is the key!

 

I sure hope they look to Vyvx for this type of service. 

[Guest ValueCarl]

While those Bozos in Bezos Land, continue to not disclose who their CDN will be for their streaming movie services, a nice win hit the wire today. Vertical penetration into the State of Georgia's healthcare business including its two largest hospitals pondering a much larger decision internationally. Less pondering and more action, please! :-\   

 

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) today announced that it has extended its network infrastructure in Georgia with the construction of a full network point of presence and fiber node at Global Net Access, LLC’s (GNAX) AtlantaNAP Data Center, the main healthcare IT hub in Georgia. The data center hosts a range of customers, including Georgia’s two largest hospital systems, who may choose to have Level 3 provide them with direct access to over 190 markets served by Level 3’s international, IP network and the ability to efficiently and economically leverage the full range of Level 3’s services.

 

http://www.level3.com/index.cfm?pageID=491&PR=992

[brker_guy]

Carl, I think Bozos & Co are using their own CDN. 

 

http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2008/11/amazons-new-cdn-offering-does-not-challenge-akamai-and-limelight.html

[brker_guy]

The Future of Telecom is HERE!  We even have an App for that!

 

http://app.en25.com/e/es.aspx?s=2237&e=146&elq=d094ec6a93e24098a7ee7fdee1705fcb

[brker_guy]

Carl, do you want to see how penetrated these telco guys are in with your local Congressmen/Congresswomen?  Look no further than this this effort in North Carolina where T-Rex, TWC, and Century Telecom are lobbying to kill a bill to have FASTER municipality fiber in that state.

 

This is SICKENING!

 

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/112774

 

AT&T, CenturyLink and Time Warner Cable are primarily concerned about new fiber builds in cities like Salisbury and Wilson, which offer significantly faster fiber speeds than these companies are willing to offer. Instead of listening to consumers and upgrading, the carriers are trying -- for the fourth time in as many years -- to ram a bill through that would largely cripple community fiber efforts, saddling them with layers of bureaucracy to help ensure they fail (at which point these same ISPs will cheer about how all such efforts are destined for failure).

 

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/North-Carolina-Votes-Today-To-Cripple-Community-Broadband-112860

 

[Guest ValueCarl]

I don't know if I'll ever get it, Brker_guy! Just when I thought I was connecting dots to Angelo Mozillo on a different thread, FOOLS suck me back into (3) with less noteworthy, possibly negative, price predatory implications! Can I start "patenting" words before I say them?  ;D

 

Connect the dots

Motley Fool CAPS darling Neutral Tandem (Nasdaq: TNDM) may be worth a closer look, with $6.19 per share in cash reserves and a growth rate well in the double digits. Neutral Tandem provides voice and video interconnection services to wireless communication providers; Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) and AT&T (NYSE: T) combine for more than a third of its revenue.

 

Neutral Tandem's appeal relates to the growing market of wireless users and an increasing amount of transmitted data. On the other side of this phenomenal track record of growth is an always-increasing field of competitors headed by Level 3 Communications (Nasdaq: LVLT). Neutral Tandem is still relatively small at a $569 million market cap, so it could be considered a takeover target by a larger firm, or it may continue its current growth strategy. Either way, its track record so far has been impressive, and it should at least merit a spot on your watchlist.

 

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/02/23/2-cash-rich-companies-worth-a-look.aspx

[Guest ValueCarl]

By the way, are you in agreement with Dan's 2.25 year old story? Somehow my comments never made it to his blog in the past, and with this subject being so old, all I can say is competition always follows growth opportunities. I don't like his analogy since if Akamai and Limelight are car companies, Amazon is not, yet it is attempting to become one in their space. Assuming they're really good at doing it well for themselves, the next logical step is always to do it for others too.   

 

The difference between Dan and Jim Crowe, for example, is that when one measures what Crowe said a couple years ago-a post I recently provided-the bandwidth tide along with the direction of regulation continues to head towards his vision specifications.   

 

The key for Amazon is two fold:

 

1) Determine if they can continue to incorporate a profitable strategy to do it themselves efficiently

 

2) Outsource to a "network partner" who can do it better and more cost effectively for them instead

 

So, let's keep looking for that announcement, Brker_guy! :D 

 

 

<When Amazon announced they would offer this service, many rushed to write headlines saying it would challenge the major CDNs. Now with the service out, again people are rushing to use generic phrases on how this spells doom and gloom for Akamai or Limelight. Yet, in none of these articles that I have seen have the authors provided any analysis or insight into why they think Amazon will challenge the major CDNs. Where is the reasoning behind this thought? BMW and Hyundai are both car manufacturers. Does that mean they compete with each other? Of course not. Yes, Amazon now has a CDN offering, but that does not mean that they now automatically compete with every other CDN in the market.

 

If you think otherwise, I'd love to hear your thoughts on why in the comments section.>

 

[brker_guy]

Yikes! Angelo Mozillo, reading his name in your post gives me the chills.  For a minute there, I thought those FOOLS compared themselves to Buffett at stock picking.  ;D ;D

 

What do you get when you mix raisins and turds scenario all over again? I applaud TNDM for getting T-Rex and Splinter as wireless clients.  I hope they don't get splinters(pun intended) for having these two wireless carriers as clients for too long...  It's really amazing how those FOOLS are shamelessly pumping companies like TNDM and AKAM without getting sanctioned by the FCC.  I also notice that they like to take jabs at (3) whenever they get a chance.  As if it's part of their strategy or something to be non-chalantly mentioning controversial stocks like (3) in their articles to just grab the attention of their readers.

 

FOOLS.BOMB, I hope you guys belong to this Berkshire/Fairfax chat and are reading these posts.  Please take as many jabs as you like.  At the end you will learn to remember the tortoise and the hare story.  If you don't learn, you shall learn to remember that tortoise/hare story that we all learned as little children.

 

Regarding your comments about Dan's article on AMZN's CDN services, I definitely would go with option 2 that you gave.  I think we heard Crowe mentioned this in the earnings CC when someone asking him about getting into the Cloud Computing business.  He said that he prefers to be the backbone providers for those Cloud Computing services.  So, in a way, he was referring to AMZN's CDN platform.  I honestly don't know how good AMZN's CDN service is, but I am guessing they are very good system integrators that know how to put multiple platforms together to be competitivive in the CDN and video streaming space.  That's why I said, "I think Bozos & Co might be using their own CDN". 

 

It will be a dream if Mr. Bozos would come with an offer and take us off the street. :-) 

[Guest ValueCarl]

Mr. Stortz' Golden Parachute is quite shiny. BTW, Brker_guy, do you know Mr. Stortz of Level 3 Communications, too, this descendant of the much earlier Omaha Beer Brewery whose PP&E along with brand rights were ultimately sold?

 

For a company still desperately needing cash, it continues to reduce their sums by multi million dollar boatloads to their top managers. On the other hand, every time I read a Level 3 legal set back or loss, I couldn't stop thinking about who was ultimately responsible. He remains highly regarded and respected for reasons only those insiders know. I sure hope it is beyond those "good old boy" network clubs! 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storz_Brewing_Company

 

Awards

 

The Storz Brewery won medals in international competition at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha in 1898, at the Lewis & Clark Exposition in Portland in 1905, and in Paris in 1912.[9

 

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/794323/000110465911009344/a11-6490_18k.htm

 

On February 16, 2011, Mr. Stortz and Level 3 LLC entered into a Consulting Agreement, which will become effective on April 2, 2011 (the “Consulting Agreement”).  The term of the Consulting Agreement will extend to April 1, 2012, unless earlier terminated.

 

In consideration for Mr. Stortz’s complete and timely performance of the services as agreed upon from time to time between Mr. Stortz and the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, the Company will pay Mr. Stortz the sum of $50,000 per month for the month of April, 2011, and $50,000 per month for each full month thereafter for the term of the Consulting Agreement (not to exceed a total of twelve monthly payments), subject to any quarterly adjustment as described below.  The Consulting Agreement provides that Mr. Stortz will meet with the Company’s Chief Executive Officer prior to each calendar quarter during the term of the Agreement to discuss any adjustment in Mr. Stortz’s monthly compensation for the next quarter, based upon the expectation of Mr. Stortz’s services during that quarter.  Any adjustment agreed will be effective for the following quarter.  In addition, Mr. Stortz will receive a quarterly award of 58,486 OSOs on July 1, 2011 and for each calendar quarter thereafter for the term of the Consulting Agreement, and a single award of 233,942 RSUs on July 1, 2011, pursuant to the terms of separately executed OSO and RSU agreements between Mr. Stortz and the Company.  Level 3 LLC will also pay Mr. Stortz’s reasonable out of pocket expenses incurred in connection with the delivery of the services, consistent with Level 3 LLC’s expense reimbursement policies.

 

 

[Guest ValueCarl]

Dan is current on Amazon, CDN's, their CloudFront, Netflix and much more! We're back to the right amount of "fiber" in one's "diet" again, Mr. Brker_guy.  ;D Then again, didn't you just show us how Dan just two years ago, didn't believe Amazon would "compete" with Akamai or Limelight? Does doing it yourself, and eliminating a 3rd party constitute "competing"? His blog was most interesting during the day, however.  

 

When it comes to the argument that Amazon's video quality is not as good as Netflix, that's a valid one, but one that will be short lived. I don't know if anyone has noticed yet but Amazon is not using their own CloudFront CDN to deliver the Prime videos. So far, of all the videos I have traced they are all coming back to Limelight Networks. I know Limelight was doing a large majority of the delivery for Amazon Video On Demand, and it's clear they are also delivering videos for Prime. This is relevant because Limelight is one of the same CDNs that Netflix uses. So when it comes to the quality of videos being delivered, the difference between Amazon and Netflix simply boils down to the encoding specs.

 

While I have seen some folks like CNET say that Amazon's streaming is "comparable to Netflix HD", that's factually not accurate. There is something to be said for one's own interpretation of what defines quality, but Amazon has given out the specs on their encoding for Prime streaming and it maxes out at 1.3Mbps, far lower than what Netflix encodes for. Amazon does offer higher quality streaming at 720p, but not for free videos via Prime as of yet.

 

As most folks already know, Netflix uses Amazon's Web Services for a substantial portion of their web-hosting and video transcoding infrastructure. In a recent filing, Netflix warned that any disruption of Amazon's service would have an impact on the company. In the filing Netflix said, "While the retail side of Amazon may compete with us, we do not believe that Amazon will use the AWS operation in such a manner as to gain competitive advantage against our service."

 

That's an interesting statement from Netflix and while they are talking about a technical advantage, Amazon already has a competitive advantage over Netflix when it comes to cost since Amazon owns the infrastructure that Netflix is leasing from them. And at some point, Amazon will most definitely use CloudFront to deliver their videos and move away from using third party CDNs. That's another cost advantage Amazon will have over Netflix, who is estimated to spend more than $50M this year just in video delivery across third party CDNs.

 

http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2011/02/amazon-prime-streaming-will-disrupt-netflix-heres-how.html

[brker_guy]

Carl, Dan Rayburn definitely has the pulse on the industry. 

 

....but Amazon has given out the specs on their encoding for Prime streaming and it maxes out at 1.3Mbps

 

I can see why the video quality can be bad.  Encoding rate maxes out at 1.3Mbps?  They would be lucky to watch this on a small 23" monitor if they encode the video at that rate. 

 

It is VERY NAIVE for NFLX to be saying this:  "While the retail side of Amazon may compete with us, we do not believe that Amazon will use the AWS operation in such a manner as to gain competitive advantage against our service."

 

Sooner than later, AMZN will DEFINITELY do this:  "And at some point, Amazon will most definitely use CloudFront to deliver their videos and move away from using third party CDNs. That's another cost advantage Amazon will have over Netflix, who is estimated to spend more than $50M this year just in video delivery across third party CDNs."

 

It is a HUGE cost advantage for AMZN.  Now, if AMZN can get enough fiber, they will be able to deliver FullHD video.  The key operative word there is "if".  Encoding rate maxing out at 1.3Mbps won't cut it.

 

Try 15-20Mbps, Mr. Bezos!  My family and I, who are your Prime Customer, might entertain the idea of signing up for such streaming service IF you encode at those rates, Mr. Bezos.

 

Thanks for sharing the Rayburn article, Carl!