PSN doesn't cost them anything. The things you can do with PSN are basically play demos (which is advertising), buy stuff (which obviously makes them money), and play online games. The bandwidth that online gaming uses isn't really that much, and the money they make on the other stuff I'm sure more than covers it.
If you compare overall the amount spent on bandwidth vs. the revenue generated, I'd be willing to bet that PSN has a higher profit margin than typical ad-supported websites.
Microsoft doesn't charge for XBL because they have to, they charge because they can.
Sony has sort of backed themselves into a corner on this one - I know that personally, I bought the PS3 at least in part because online gaming was free - the reason that free online gaming for me is so important is because I don't often do it, but I like to do it enough that I want to have it available. I can't justify the cost of XBL for something I might do a few hours a month, at most. Then again, it depends on how many people buy one game and play it online 24 hours a day, and how many people are like me who almost never play games online, and own pretty much every game on PSN.
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