💁 About this article
This article is part of Fugo’s Power BI knowledge base: a collection of resources answering common Power BI questions. We include notes throughout where Fugo’s integration may be helpful for displaying dashboards on digital signage.
Table of contents
The problem most teams run into
Teams usually start with Power BI Pro and share reports directly with colleagues. This works when the audience is small and actively uses Power BI.
As reporting matures, the audience changes:
more viewers than creators
reports that are read-only
dashboards meant to be visible without user interaction
At this point, licensing decisions become a cost question rather than a feature question.
Sharing reports with Power BI Pro licenses
Power BI Pro is a per-user license required for anyone who creates, publishes, or collaborates on reports.
What this approach supports
small teams
collaborative reporting
interactive dashboards
ad-hoc sharing through the Power BI service
Cost considerations
This model remains cost-effective when:
most users actively work with reports
viewer counts are limited
dashboards are accessed individually
As viewer counts increase, total cost scales linearly with the number of people who need access.
Sharing reports using Fabric capacity
Fabric capacity introduces a shared compute model for analytics workloads, including Power BI.
How Fabric affects Power BI sharing
report creators still require Power BI Pro
compute is billed at the capacity level
viewer licensing behavior changes at higher capacity tiers
The F64 threshold
Fabric capacities below F64 still require viewers to hold Power BI Pro licenses.
At F64 and above:
report viewers can use free licenses
Power BI operates in a fully capacity-backed model
Pro is limited to creators and administrators
Cost considerations
Fabric F64 starts at approximately $5,000–$5,800 per month depending on commitment and billing model
Pro licenses are still required for authors (typically a small subset of users)
This approach becomes cost-effective when:
hundreds of people need to view reports
only a small number create them
dashboards are centrally managed
Why licensing alone does not solve distribution
Power BI licensing determines who is allowed to access content. It does not determine how content is delivered.
Common gaps appear when dashboards are expected to:
stay visible all day
run without user logins
appear on shared displays
survive device restarts and sleep states
Licensing allows access. Distribution requires an additional layer.
Using digital signage to distribute Power BI dashboards
Digital signage treats Power BI dashboards as persistent displays rather than user sessions.
When digital signage makes sense
office-wide KPIs
operational dashboards
shared performance metrics
executive summary screens
In these cases, dashboards are meant to be visible continuously rather than interacted with.
Power BI on digital signage with Fugo
Fugo provides a delivery layer for Power BI dashboards on TVs and display hardware.
With Fugo’s Power BI app:
dashboards run unattended on screens
no one needs to log in at the display
refresh schedules are centrally managed
screens remain online continuously
Licensing implications
Power BI Pro is still required for report creators
Fabric capacity still governs viewer licensing rules
displays themselves are not licensed users
This approach reduces friction when many people need to see the same information without individual access or interaction.
Practical summary
Requirement | Typical solution |
Small team, active collaboration | Power BI Pro |
Large internal audience | Fabric F64+ |
Always-on shared dashboards | Digital signage with Fugo |