← Business Metric: Industry Specific (Consumer, Services & Financial) (all topics)
LCO (local cable operator) revenue share
What it is
The split of subscription revenue between the multi-system operator, which aggregates channels and runs the headend, and the local cable operator, who owns the last-mile connection and the customer relationship
The LCO collects from the household, so the MSO depends on the local operator both for billing accuracy and subscriber reporting
Impact on industries
- The MSO is structurally disadvantaged - the party that controls collection and the customer relationship captures negotiating power, regardless of who owns the network core
- Under-declaration of subscribers has been a persistent leakage, which digitisation and addressable systems reduced but did not eliminate
- LCO local presence delivers installation, fault resolution and collection at a cost no centralised operator could match in fragmented Indian markets
- Shrinking subscriber revenue is being split by the same number of intermediaries, so the decline compresses both parties and sharpens conflict over the split