YouTube Is No Better Than Your Legacy Cable Provider
One of the tricks Google’s YouTube unit leverages to drive operating margins is to store and playback premium video content purchased as “HD” content at some resolution less than High Definition (1080 resolution per YouTube’s service level agreement qualifies as “HD”). When Google Support was contacted I was told that YouTube has identified a technical issue related to the “Web” version and that HD playback is available on mobile devices (not the first time I have experienced this problem). The cynic in me assumes the logic behind YouTube’s service delivery failure is that fewer people watch long-form video content on mobile devices versus laptops/desktops. Therefore, there is less cost to YouTube in delivering its agreed upon service to a portion of its customer base rather than the entire base knowing the vast majority of customers either will not notice the problem or will not follow-up. This reminds me of the old legacy cable provider trick of passing along fees to customers that fall outside of the customer contract. What movie was I watching during the morning workout? See below.
