This new starview server!!!

[cally]

How much would it actually cost these guys to run this thing, and how much would the initial set up cost be????

[TheCoder]

Originally Posted by cally

How much would it actually cost these guys to run this thing, and how much would the initial set up cost be????

Its a bit hard to say but as a possible guess -

25 subscribed cards - Generally 1 card needed per transponder that you want to open. The majority of the cards can be XL pack subs with no extras but obviously some cards are going to require things like movies/sports. Some of the cards may also be for an 'extra' box on the same subscription.

Lets keep it simple and start by saying

10 * XL @ £30.50 (no phone)
10 * XL + Movies/Sport @ £60
5 * XL + 'other' extras at avg of £50

Total for subs = £305 + £600 + £250 = £1155 for subs per month

The above is a guess based on how things could be set up but remember some cards may be from places that have multiple boxes (£6.50 for same sub) to reduce costs. SV may have more subs or less - only they will know !

Server - servers are relatively cheap. You can get a relatively decent server in India/Russia/China etc for around £100pm. Lets say that SV have 4 servers plus a couple of 'intermediates' (cheaper, say £60 each) so lets take the monthly server bill to be around £550.

Uploader equipment. Can be done various ways. Either a few pc's with dvb cards or maybe modified SV oxes or maybe something more specialist. These are one off costs but lets say it could be sorted for £5000

Other costs - obviously internet connection. These are pretty cheap. Lets say the uploaders work from 5 locations so say 5 * £20pm (lets assume cable - its pretty reliable over ADSL).

Not sure of SV's new internal structure but there may be 'wages' to the uploaders - no idea but lets figure £200pm each to 5 uploaders

So totals -

Setup - £5000
Monthly - £1155 + £550 + £100 + £1000 = £2805

As I say, a guess, but a fairly informed guess. Both figures may be more or less but I doubt its too substantial. I would certainly doubt whether the monthly costs are more than £5k per month top whack.

Cant remember what the subs costs were but if we say £5 per month per client then to break even they need between 500 and 1000 clients. From what I know of the previous setup, there were around 25k clients regularly connecting.

[PerryCox]

Blimey! For no particular reason I thought it would be a negligible cost, but ~£3k per month is far from negligible. With the (highest) per box profit estimated to be £20 (by yourself I think?), the first 150 box sales every month just about covered costs. If it were £10 profit per box, you're talking 300 boxes per month to cover costs. 25000 boxes sold in a year = ~2000 per month, so theoretically 7.5-15% of box sales covered sever costs. Of course, the initial box sales would have been higher, but by the same token, later box sales would be probably far lower than the average. If the box sales were in the 1000 p/m region, and 300 box sales per month were needed, it's not surprising the server went kaput (though I always anticipated this with a server funded by box sales business model).

I know (from your own hints) that the KV arrangement is different, but it makes me wonder how different it is in order to stay working once box sales decline.

As always, I await correction if I've got something ridiculously out of shape

[G77]

Originally Posted by TheCoder

£2805

you'd think they would have it running a bit better eh?

[jimbo]

If it's still running according to some reports.