Video Entertainment: Slim to Zero Profits

For most tier-one service providers, video entertainment has lower profit margins than internet access or voice. The issue is how much lower. Gross margins for internet access might be in the range of 20 percent for video, 40 percent for internet access. Net margins for video might be in single digits.

For smaller service providers, video entertainment is a money-loser.


source: Geobrava

For Metronet, an overbuilder operating in Indiana and Illinois, it is literally the case that video entertainment is a “zero margin” service; a feature of a triple-play service, not a direct revenue driver.

Using what it calls a pass-thru pricing regime, Metronet says it makes video entertainment available at exactly what Metronet pays its content providers.

Under that “pass thru pricing” program, consumers are billed exactly what we pay for the television networks in your package,” Metronet says.

That means no mark-up from the actual cost of goods. “We promise that you'll pay exactly what we pay for the networks in your television lineup,” Metronet says.

In other words, video entertainment literally is a feature of the triple-play package, not a revenue generator.