Call the cable TV provider in your area, because you’re going to want broadband Internet for the upcoming “Streaming Wars”.

When Dish Network satellite TV bought the failing Blockbuster video, many wondered how Dish would turn it into a money maker.   Well, the first attempt is being made as we speak.  After Netflix announced significant price hikes to come, Dish Network saw an opportunity to grab new customers.

Netflix took its single disc/streaming video product and broke it into two products.  What was once $9.99 a month for both is now $7.99 a month per product.  Obviously, Netflix users are miffed.  Dish Network offers a one disc rental package for $9.99, but the Blockbuster package does not include streaming video.  At least not yet.
However, according to a BizJournals.com article, Dish Network satellite TV / Blockbuster video feels customers would switch from Netflix for early access to new releases and video game rentals.  The Blockbuster package is $2 more a month than the single disc package from Netflix, so only time will tell.  What’s more important, saving $2 or having access to newer new releases and video games?

If you watch movies online using NetFlix you’ll be interested in what they have to say about speed and delivery.  The movie rental company recently released a chart showing cable Internet providers and phone companies and where they rank in terms of delivering HD titles using NetFlix online.  While it may seem like a risky move, it may be just the type of prodding our cable Internet providers and phone companies need to pick up the pace.

The chart illustrates online performance in kilobits per second over the last few months, since October 2010.  It looks like Charter, Comcast cable TV, Cox and Time Warner Cable are the consistent top performers.  So what does that tell you?  Well, it looks like cable Internet providers are consistently providing faster service to NetFlix online customers.  However, none of the US cable Internet providers can top the Canadian providers.  It looks like our neighbors to the North are delivering faster Internet speeds.

Ken Floreance, Director of Content Delivery at NetFlix, does a good job of putting the speeds into perspective.  Ken says the “top HD streams are about 4800 kilobits per second. Clients may switch through a number of bitrates as they ramp up to the highest stream, or shift down from the highest stream if they cannot sustain play at that rate due to throughput constraints. No client would sustain a 4800 [kbps] stream from start to finish (there would at least be a few smaller streams averaged in for startup) but the higher the sustained average, the greater the throughput the client can achieve, and the greater the image quality over the duration of the play.”

Sp you likely wouldn’t experience blistering speeds from start to finish, but the US could certainly stand to see a higher average throughout the industry.  Ken plans on updating monthly, so hopefully we’ll see a steady increase from sea to shining sea.

Here’s one you may not have seen coming . . . Comcast cable TV, is working with Blockbuster, the video rental company, to offer discounts on Blockbuster DVD by mail programs to their shared customers.  It appears to be a high profile partnership to directly compete with Netflix.  However, unlike the strictly mail based Netflix platform, the Blockbuster plans also allow you to exchange DVDs  at your local Blockbuster store.

So how does it work?

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Under the Comcast partnership, customers who already use at least two of the company’s cable, Internet or telephone services get a $1 to $3 discount on monthly plans that provide Blockbuster by-mail packages.”  It sounds easy enough.  If you visit the new site, www.dvdsbymail.com, you can login with your Comcast.net ID and get started.