Well, not quite. Different measures of profit help you figure out which bits to concentrate on, just like having a good profiler helps you pinpoint bottlenecks.
In this particular case, showing that a company can get to gross profit streaming purely by web is valuable info -- it shows that the hoops Joost is going through to do P2P distribution may not be necessary. It also chips away at the assumption that pipe-owners have a natural advantage. I did some work in this area, and I had thought Hulu would get murdered by their bandwidth costs.
Different measures of profit help you figure out which bits to concentrate on,
My argument is that they almost always make bad situations look better, and in effect you end up ignoring core problems to focus on a much easier to believe "bit to concentrate on".
For me, as a founder, the best numbers are the ones that are the most difficult to beautify, since those will be the ones that are ultimately most accurate to the health of the overall business.
In this particular case, showing that a company can get to gross profit streaming purely by web is valuable info -- it shows that the hoops Joost is going through to do P2P distribution may not be necessary. It also chips away at the assumption that pipe-owners have a natural advantage. I did some work in this area, and I had thought Hulu would get murdered by their bandwidth costs.