Chibardun Doesn’t Make Money at IPTV

Executives from independent telcos Pioneer Telephone Cooperative and Chibardun Telephone today during an opening session at TelcoTV discussed their IPTV experiences. The kicker? Chibardun doesn’t make money on its TV services, but delivers them to complete its bundle.

That was a strange revelation to some. Of course, we’ve all heard of free VoIP and the idea of throwing in other services gratis as part of a package. But free TV?

“We use video as a tool,” says Chibardun CEO Rick Vergin. “We don’t make money at it. We use it as a tool for things we do make money at.” That includes local voice and high-speed Internet services, he says, noting that 48 percent of his IPTV customers also subscribe to high-speed Internet services.

Vergin didn’t spend a lot of time elaborating on the fact that IPTV isn’t a money-maker for Chibardun, but he did mention that programming costs increase 8 to 12 percent a year, and he noted that the “cable guys can be vicious competitors.”

Vergin added that although Chibardun doesn’t make a profit with IPTV, it is possible to do so, adding that VoD and PPV can bring in additional revenues.

Share this article: Email, Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Yahoo!MyWeb, Windows Live Favorites, Furl
Add this article feed to: RSS, My Yahoo, Newsgator, Bloglines