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Earlier this week, I sat down with UTOPIA to discuss the Macquarie deal and their general operations. One great part of these sit-downs is that I can get candid answers to some of your common questions. Some of you have asked more than a few times about TV service. Right now, only Beehive Broadband and Brigham.net sell video service to new customers using UTOPIA’s headend and Veracity is using their own. Most providers sell satellite packages to plug the gap. Why? Because video doesn’t make money.
Yes, it’s true. Video is a break-even product at best. Look at the numbers from any cable provider and you’ll see the same story: video and voice make data customers more “sticky”, but it’s the broadband that pays the bills. They’ve quickly become commodity products that help the revenue side but don’t do much on the profit side. The consensus at FTTH conferences is that video isn’t something that most of them want to do.
So what does this mean for you? Right now, you’ll have to fall back on satellite TV or pick one of the providers that does video service. Since Brigham.net is sticking to Brigham City, that means Beehive or Veracity. This doesn’t mean that all hope is lost, though. UTOPIA has been talking to its video partners about an over-the-top live TV service to plug the gap. It would be sold Netflix-style, but it would have all of your favorite TV channels and possibly some good on-demand stuff too. It’s a ways out (I’d guess years), but it’s where we’re all headed anyway.
