The number of viewers or views of the stream influence the costs per viewer in the live stream in the case of a paid platform or a dedicated server. With many streaming providers, the costs are calculated based on the bandwidth required to transmit the stream to the viewers. The more viewers access the stream at the same time and the higher the resolution selected by the viewer, the more bandwidth is required. The bandwidth is calculated in gigabytes or terabytes and is typically billed in decreasing amounts depending on the amount of data required per month. For example, some providers offer lower prices per transferred data volume from 10 TB or 50 TB.
Another factor for the costs is the resolution of the stream for the viewers. If users choose a higher resolution, they consume more bandwidth. This leads to higher costs because more data has to be transmitted.
Adjust bandwidth to audience size
To optimize costs, it is therefore important to estimate the number of viewers in advance and adjust the bandwidth accordingly. You should also choose the resolution of the stream carefully to ensure both good quality for the viewers and to keep the costs within reasonable limits.
However, with live streams of up to 500 viewers, you don’t have to worry too much about quality or data volume.
There is a rule of thumb for the calculation: a stream with a compression rate of around 6 Mbit/s generates a data volume of 3 GB per hour. With 500 viewers, this would be around 1.5 TB of data if we assume that all 500 viewers watch without interruption. Stream1 charges EUR 0.10 per GB, i.e. only EUR 150 net for 1.5 TB. However, it can be assumed that viewers with different quality levels are included, which means that around 30% can be deducted. This means that the costs for the data volume at the CDN are around 100 euros net per hour with a planned 500 viewers.
Stream1 offers packages with 500 / 1,000 / 2,000 or 5,000 viewers. Viewing time and data volume are included. Stream1 uses one of the major European providers for CDN networks to provide viewers with the correct streaming data at the same time.
