Hotel TV Five-Year TCO: Cloud, STB and On-Premise Cost Model

The first-year licence is rarely the largest source of error in a hotel television business case. Buyers omit endpoints, receiver cards, content rights, internet, support, staff time and replacement. A five-year model makes different architectures comparable.

Cost categories

Initial: design, installation, server, receiver cards, CAMs, televisions or STBs, remotes, cabling, PMS integration, branding and training.

Recurring: software, room licence, content, CDN or bandwidth, support, certificates, monitoring and third-party interfaces.

Lifecycle: hardware replacement, spares, firmware work, security remediation, site visits and migration at contract end.

Internal: procurement, content administration, helpdesk, engineering and finance reconciliation.

Normalise the comparison

Use the same room count, channel package, PMS scope, support hours, availability target and tax basis. Calculate annual cost per registered room and five-year net cash cost. Do not compare a cloud quote that includes support with a local server quote that excludes year-two maintenance.

Direct TV versus STB

A validated hospitality television may remove the STB, power supply, HDMI cable and mounting work. If existing screens are retained, a preconfigured STB may preserve capital and standardise the interface. Include device failure rate and room visit cost in both cases.

Cloud versus on-premise

Cloud usually reduces local hardware and accelerates launch. On-premise may suit large properties with local satellite or terrestrial reception and can reduce WAN dependency. Hybrid can preserve local channels while centralising services. Price the operating model, not the label.

Add scenarios

Model base, growth and stress cases. Change rooms, content package, internet, hardware replacement and support. The purpose is not false precision; it is to show which assumptions change the decision.

COTT.TV planning baseline

COTT.TV cloud pricing starts from EUR 10 per registered room per month, with compatible hospitality-TV deployment or preconfigured STB routes. On-premise and hybrid projects are quoted against room count, receiver configuration, PMS and support. The final model should use the property's exact television fleet and rights schedule.

Sources and further reading

• 1Booking.com: 2026 European Accommodation Barometer
• 2Hospitality Technology: 2026 Lodging Technology Study
• 3European Commission: Data Act explained