Re:Owncast is a self-hosted live video and web chat server
by bryans on Monday June 20, 2022 @05:34PM
(#31816318)
What you're describing isn't very realistic, since nobody would willingly choose the most expensive option(s) for transfer -- and CDNs aren't even particularly useful for live video, as the minimal latency increase of using a single location is easily counteracted with larger buffers, all of which is already baked in to the protocols.
Here's some counterpoint math including revenue, using even higher bitrates across a couple cheap load-balanced 4Gbps VPSs. For simplicity, I'll use a single average stream.
That's a $188 margin self-hosted versus approximately $120 via Twitch mechanisms. Presuming 5 streams per week, Twitch is taking a $17,000/year commission. Twitch does provide some other functionality and very minimal discovery, but if you already have a dedicated audience, then self-hosting absolutely makes sense for any sized streamer, especially considering that you're not limited to streaming to only one platform.
Here's some counterpoint math including revenue, using even higher bitrates across a couple cheap load-balanced 4Gbps VPSs. For simplicity, I'll use a single average stream.
Transfer: 300 avg. viewers * 6 hours * 5mbps = 4TB @ $0.01/GB = $40
Revenue: 5,000 total views * 0.01 conversion * ($5 avg. contribution - processing) = $228
That's a $188 margin self-hosted versus approximately $120 via Twitch mechanisms. Presuming 5 streams per week, Twitch is taking a $17,000/year commission. Twitch does provide some other functionality and very minimal discovery, but if you already have a dedicated audience, then self-hosting absolutely makes sense for any sized streamer, especially considering that you're not limited to streaming to only one platform.