At first glance, one might think that a small town of under 2,300 people would need to lean on an outside company to provide broadband and video service. Such is not the case for the city of Bellevue, one of the first municipalities in Iowa to construct and operate a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network. What makes this an even better story is that they are operating at a profit with both of these services.

Saving Money and Closely Monitoring Content Costs

Bellvue’s Assistant City Clerk Emily Medinger coordinates billing activities and says the management team has maintained service profitability by closely monitoring costs and expenses. Medinger says when it comes specifically to video, MG-TV from Innovative Systems plays a big part with many integral parts of their video system on the Innostream platform. Having things like middleware and conditional access integrated into the same system is efficient, and the subscription model makes it easy to calculate expenses.

Diligent Channel Watchdogs

Channel lineup fitness is also key in video profitability for Bellevue, and Medinger says they are very proactive during contract renewals by adjusting their lineup to remove duplication as well as channels that their customers are not watching. Currently, Bellevue customers are on the MG-TV IPTV, but the plan is to offer live streaming from Innovative in the future. Medinger says they have a sizable older customer demographic, but there is a desire from Bellevue residents to access their current channel lineup with consumer devices.