In an attempt to appease the FCC, Comcast is working around the bandwidth hogs with a solution, on the surface.
What this is really about is Comcast becoming its own CDN of sorts, and eliminating the need for total reliance on the companies who are the giants. By working with Bit Torrent to share files, including programs that are stored locally on users PC and PVR (Personal Video Recorders) Comcast can avoid the long haul of sending files stored on its servers that don’t always stay on their own networks, while also beginning to wean away from Content Delivery Networks like the ones operated by Akamai, Level3, Limelight, EdgeCast, etc. Remember, Akamai bought Red Swoosh to P2P last year, but why do the MSO’s need to pay a third party to manage things that run on their own networks. It’s like asking the consultant what time it is, and he asks to borrow your watch.
Basically, what this tells me is the cable operators are looking more and more at how they replace the distributed architecture of the telcos, with the IP efficiency that the Internet brings. Hence the more they can do locally, without having to ever go over someone else’s pipes, and which they can meter, monitor and monitize means more for them.