Time Warner Cable (TWC), the no. 2 U.S. cable provider, is expanding tests that would require its Internet subscribers to pay overage fees (as expensive as $1/GB) for Internet downloads beyond a monthly cap. That means that watching video on the Web -- especially high-quality video -- could get pricey.
So it's no surprise that Bob Bowman, CEO of Major League Baseball Advanced Media, isn't a fan of the idea. His company makes lots of money each year selling MLB.TV, a baseball video streaming service that's now available in hi-definition. Therefore, Bowman has no interest in seeing his customers forced to pay more to watch video on their PCs.
"I don't think that ever has a chance of happening," Bowman told us in an interview. "I think AOL tried that when they first launched, charging people by the hour. The notion that they're going to start charging people based on bandwidth and regulating the bandwidth is going to be very hard for them to do. Bandwidth is just not consumed like gas."
