This is some seriously bad news, and the best argument so far against the Comcast/Time Warner merger (not that TW is a network neutrality saint either).

Also exactly why Google is building Google Fiber (and, please, do it fast), because if they don’t, as their services require more and more bandwidth, their options are to either cut exactly this kind of private deal with the broadband providers (assuming we’re left with more than one) or to live in the internet ghetto of grudging “open” peering that remains after all these private deals get made.