Forget about the gigundous case for libel Netflix would have against Comcast on millions of counts... those Netflix payments that Comcast just earned are going to stop, and their first high-profile experiment with double-dipping payments will have failed abruptly.

I assure you Comcast does not want that.

They most certainly did; and what's more, the transit provider Netflix was using prior to paying Comcast was, IIRC, Cogent, not Level3.

I think so, but it's only fair to note that it's very difficult to get accurate information about this, since all of the parties have a strong interest in not making all the details public, at least not while they're jockeying for position.

> Level3's wikipedia page still says they deliver Netflix.

No, it says (if you go look at the reference that's footnoted) that Netflix was about to switch to Level3 (from Cogent, although that specific reference doesn't say so) as as transit provider, and Comcast used that to try to extract peering fees from Level3 based on an expected increased level of traffic. When Level3 refused, Comcast went to Netflix and got them to pay for direct connection to Comcast's network, bypassing any transit provider.