How to Price Your IPTV Service as a Reseller

Most new resellers choose a price by looking at what someone else charges and going a little lower. It feels safe. It is actually the quickest way to end up working long hours for almost nothing, with customers who leave the moment someone else goes lower still. This guide shows you how to set prices from your own numbers, how to structure plans that customers actually choose, and how to handle the conversations about price that every reseller has.

Start from your cost, not from theirs

You do not know what your competitors pay for their points, how many customers they have, or whether they are making any money at all. Some are on a large volume tier and can afford to be cheap. Some are losing money and will vanish in three months, leaving their customers looking for someone new. Copying their price means copying a business you know nothing about.

So begin with your own cost per point. Divide what you paid for your package by the points in it. On a $400 package with 100 points, that is $4.00 a point. On the $100 entry package with 20 points it is $5.00. If you later move to a partner tier, it falls further.

Then cost each plan you plan to sell, using the consumption table in your panel:

Costs in brackets assume $4 a point. Only once you have this table filled in for your own rate should you look at the market, and then only as information.

Add the cost nobody writes down

The points are not your only cost. Every customer also costs you time: the setup conversation, the "it's not working" message on a Friday night, the renewal reminder, the question about adding a second TV. That time is real, and over a year it is often worth more than the points.

A useful exercise is to estimate how many messages an average customer sends you per month and how long each takes. If an average customer costs you an hour a month and your margin on them is $3 a month, you are working for $3 an hour. That is the moment most resellers realise they priced too low.

There are also smaller costs that add up: payment fees, the occasional free week you give someone after an outage, the trial that never converts, a branded app or website once you grow. Price with enough room for all of it.

Why cheapest is the worst position you can take

Being the cheapest feels like a strategy. It is the absence of one.

• Someone will always undercut you. The moment you are second cheapest, your whole advantage is gone.
• Price shoppers do not stay. The customers you win on price are the ones who leave on price.
• They cost the most to support. In almost every reseller's experience, the customers who haggled hardest are the ones who message most often.
• You cannot afford to do the job well. On a thin margin you cannot afford to answer quickly, give a goodwill week after an outage, or invest in a branded app.

Pricing a little above the cheapest option and being visibly more reliable is a far stronger position. Most people do not want the cheapest TV service. They want one that works and someone to message when it does not.

A plan structure that works

Three options outsell one, and the way you arrange them changes what people choose.

• Monthly. The highest price per month. This exists for people who want to try you before committing. Do not try to make it attractive.
• Six months. A modest saving. This is the comfortable middle option, and the one many customers choose.
• Annual. The obvious best value. This is the plan you actually want to sell, because a customer on an annual plan renews once a year instead of twelve times, and every renewal is a chance to lose them.

Show the annual plan as a monthly equivalent ("works out at $8.33 a month") next to the monthly price. The comparison does the selling for you.

Notice too that the point cost per month falls on longer and larger plans. A 12-month, two-device plan uses 22 points rather than 24. That gap is extra margin for you, which is another reason to steer people towards longer plans.

Charge properly for extra devices

Each extra connection uses real points. A three-device annual plan costs you 31 points instead of 12, so it has to cost the customer substantially more than a single-device plan.

Many resellers throw in a second device to close a sale. Do it once and it becomes the expectation, and you end up supporting a whole household for the price of one screen. Make it simple instead: show a clear price for one, two and three devices and let the customer pick.

Explain what a connection is when you sell. One connection is one screen watching at a time. A customer who thinks they bought one plan for the whole house will be unhappy the first time two people try to watch at once, and that becomes a support problem you created at the point of sale.

Round, simple prices

Prices like $14.73 make people stop and think. Prices like $15 do not. Keep your prices round, keep the list short, and write them in one message you can paste anywhere.

Show the total, not a calculation. "12 months, 1 device: $100" is easier to say yes to than a breakdown of points and rates. Customers do not need to know how your costs work.

What to do when someone haggles

Everyone in this business gets asked for a discount. How you handle it matters more than the number.

1. Offer a free trial instead. If they doubt the value, let them see it on their own TV.
2. Offer a longer plan at a better monthly rate. You protect your headline price, the customer feels they won something, and you get a longer commitment.
3. Add value rather than cutting price. Offer to set it up for them over a call. It costs you ten minutes and is worth more to a nervous customer than a few dollars off.
4. If they still refuse, let them go. A customer who fought you on price before buying will be the hardest one to keep afterwards.

Never discount your monthly plan for one person. Word travels, and you will be asked for the same price by everyone they know.

When and how to raise prices

Your costs will change, and at some point you will want to raise prices. Do it carefully.

• Raise prices for new customers first. Existing customers can keep their current rate for a while. It costs little and buys a lot of goodwill.
• Give notice. Tell existing customers well before their next renewal, and say why in one honest sentence.
• Offer a way to lock in. Let them renew annually at the old rate before the change takes effect. Many will, which is good for you.
• Do not apologise too much. A clear, short message reads as confident. A long one reads as guilty.

Promotions that do not destroy your margin

Promotions are useful when they bring in customers who stay. They are damaging when they train customers to wait for the next sale.

• Extra time, not lower prices. "Buy 12 months, get 13" costs you one point and keeps your price intact.
• Referral rewards. A free month for a customer who brings a friend is the cheapest acquisition you will ever pay for.
• Event timing. People look for TV at predictable moments, such as the start of a sports season. A trial campaign then works better than a discount at any time.

A quick pricing checklist

• I know my cost per point and the cost of every plan I sell.
• My cheapest plan still leaves enough margin to support the customer properly.
• I have three plans, with annual clearly the best value.
• Extra devices are priced clearly and never given away.
• I have a ready answer for discount requests that is not a discount.
• My prices are round and fit in one message.

Example price lists

To make this concrete, here is how one reseller paying $4.00 a point might lay out a simple price list. These are illustrations, not recommendations for your market.

Look at how the list guides the customer. The monthly plan is clearly the most expensive per month. The annual plan is visibly the best deal. Two screens cost more than one, but less than double. Everything is a round number, and the whole list fits in a single message.

Common questions

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