Netflix and Verizon have come to an arrangement that should ensure quality television and movie streams for Verizon customers for the foreseeable future.
While details remain confidential, the deal is likely similar to the deal made between Netflix and Comcast back in February.
As we wrote in our guide to understanding the Netflix-Comcast deal, here's what it boils down to: Netflix will pay Verizon an undisclosed sum, and in exchange Verizon will connect directly to Netflix's servers, improving streaming quality for all Netflix content.
Netflix VP Joris Evers confirmed the deal in a tweet this afternoon:
@WaltBTIG We have reached an interconnect arrangement with VZ that we hope will improve performance for customers over the coming months.
— Joris Evers (@jorisevers) April 28, 2014According to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, Verizon and Netflix have been negotiating over this deal for more than a year now; shortly after the Comcast deal, he said that he expected Netflix and his company to come to a similar arrangement.
But in the two months since he agreed to pay Comcast, Hastings and Netflix have been arguing against such arrangements, calling for a "stronger" understanding of net neutrality and claiming that Comcast is "double-dipping" by charging its customers to access Netflix and charging Netflix to access its customers.
While Verizon customers tired of poor stream quality can be happy about the news, it's been interesting to watch Netflix executives angrily yell about Internet service provider practices while paying money to enable those very same practices. As we've written before, it's not entirely clear what Hastings is hoping for in the long term.