DOOOOM!!!!!!!

How does this change gaming? 

Say Sony signs a deal with Comcast if (when, likely) this Time Warner acquisition goes through. Now all Comcast subscribers get better access to PlayStation network. But Sony could also say that Comcast will agree to give their subscribers inferior access to Xbox LIVE or the Nintendo Network, whether or not those people even have a Playstation.

Hmm........in this case of gaming, it literally pays to back the corporation with the most $$$.

I would be smug as f%&k if MS paid providers to give them the fastest connection while the "competition" had to pay money they prefer not to spend or have a slower network.

I hate our government. It's run by corporations and lobbyists. Unfortunately, the government decided that lobbying falls under free speech. But don't protest the ruling! They'll send you to a "free speech zone".

The underlying problem is the regional telecoms monopolies protected by statute.

If the Republican Party actually believed what it said, they would have fully deregulated it years ago (letting things like Google Fiber and municipal broadband happen)

If the Democrat Party actually believed what it said, they would have fully nationalised it years ago (letting investment get through to rural areas and companies providing service compete on a level playing field)

What Mr Khan said. Yet it would be more along the line of ISPs charging big data providers for transporting their data at a faster rate. So it's not Sony telling the ISP to throttle MS and Nintendo, but the ISP telling Sony to pay up to give their data priority. The result is the same anyway, and the costs are transferred to the customer. Meaning digital downloads will have a download fee added onto their price.
Sony already did this last gen by charging publishers for hosting their data on psn, which resulted in less demos on PSN. MS charged consumers with xbox live to pay for data hosting costs. So either ps+ and xbox live will get more expensive, or digital games and movies will.

That's dumb. What if I have a PS4 & Wii U? I'd simply get bad online for the Wii U & good for PS4? 

Am I glad I live in the EU, fast speeds everywhere and almost no datacap.

That's theoretical. Plus nobody's sure how "bad" they would make it. Despite the area monopolies broadband providers have, they do not have so much latitude that they could screw with services in a major way with impunity. We're talking more about optimization: you'll get the *best* online on PS4 on Comcast, while Live and the Nintendo Network won't be as good.

They're not going to want to really piss off customers by playing favorites in a heavy-handed way, it'll be one of those more insidious things. "I swear DailyMotion used to buffer faster than this." That sort of thing.