Reseller guide
IPTV Reseller vs Sub Reseller: Which One Should You Be?
People use these two words interchangeably and then get confused about who owes whom money. They are different positions in the same chain.
The chain
Provider → reseller → sub reseller → end customer.
A reseller buys credits directly from the provider and opens lines for customers. A sub reseller does the same job but buys from a reseller rather than the provider, at whatever rate that reseller sets.
If you have sub resellers under you, you are usually called a master reseller. That is a description of your position, not a separate product.
What each one controls
| Reseller | Sub reseller | |
|---|---|---|
| Buys credits from | The provider | Their reseller |
| Credit price | The published volume rate | Whatever their reseller sets |
| Sets retail prices | Yes | Yes |
| Owns their customers | Yes | Yes |
| Can see the parent's other customers | — | No |
| Support escalation path | Direct to provider | Through their reseller |
That last row is the one people underestimate. A sub reseller's escalation runs through you, which means their customer's 9pm problem becomes your 9pm problem.
The spread is the business
If you buy 1,000 credits at $1.50 and supply sub resellers at $2.50, every credit they burn pays you a dollar. Ten active sub resellers burning 60 credits a month each is 600 credits, or $600 a month, without you creating a single line yourself.
That is the appeal. Here is the cost.
What sub reselling actually costs you
- Support load. You become their provider. Their questions, their outages, their confused customers.
- Balance risk. Their usage draws from your credits. An uncapped sub reseller can drain a block in a week.
- Reputation. A sloppy sub reseller selling badly under your supply still reflects on the service, and eventually on you.
When to move up
Become a master reseller when you have more demand than time — when the constraint on your growth is your own hours, not your marketing. If you are still hunting for your next ten customers, adding sub resellers just multiplies your support work without multiplying your revenue.
Which should you be?
Start as a plain reseller. Learn what breaks, write your setup guide, find out how much support a customer actually needs. Then recruit sub resellers — and price them with that number in mind, not just your credit cost.
If you are already reselling for someone else and hitting a ceiling on the rate they give you, that is the moment to buy direct and become the reseller instead.