Streaming video hosting costs are a lot less than most companies expect, and in many cases, zero! The purpose of the tables we've prepared below is to give you a clear understanding of how much bandwidth you'll be using and your costs, if any, of deploying streaming video on your existing web site. Real Video hosting and Windows Media hosting require the same amount of bandwidth, so these tables apply to either format.  In most cases, depending upon the level of traffic you have on your web site, you'll be able to conclude that you don't even need additional hosting for your streaming video. If you haven't already done so, please read more about streaming video hosting now, and your top four choices for hosting streaming video.

The most costly mistake companies make when deploying streaming video for the first time is that they believe they need to host their streaming video through someone other than their existing ISP.

Streaming Video Hosting With Your Current ISP - You're Already Paying For It

The majority of streaming video on the Net is coming right from the same web server that hosts the web site itself. The ability to stream video does not require that your ISP have either a Real Video or Windows Media video server. If they have one, fine. If they don't, you can still stream video from your web server without any additional cost. To illustrate this more clearly, we have prepared two tables below.

The first table is based on a typical web hosting package for small businesses from most major ISP's where the monthly web site hosting charges are $50 and the allowed file transfers are 20 Gigabytes per month. Most web site hosting packages of this type offered by major ISP's allow you to stream your Real Video or Windows Media from either:

• the ISP's dedicated Real Video or Windows Media video servers (if they have them), or
• straight from your existing web server.

You probably have a package similar to this already for your web hosting needs. Although your current monthly web hosting charges and allowed monthly transfers with your existing ISP may be higher or lower than those illustrated in the following table, you can apply the information contained in this table to determine what your potential bandwidth usage will be by including streaming video on your existing site.

Streaming Video Hosting Usually Isn't Needed

A good rule of thumb for sites with small business hosting packages is that if less than 1,000 minutes of video will be watched from from your web site per day, you probably don't need to pay for additional hosting for your streaming video.

For sites that are already on dedicated servers or are self-hosted, if less than 20,000 minutes of video will be watched from from your web site per day, you probably don't need to pay for additional hosting for your streaming video.

The conclusion you may reach from the tables below is that you probably already have enough in allowed monthly file transfers through your existing ISP to completely cover your streaming video needs, so there is no need to pay another ISP for hosting your streaming video. If you do need additional bandwidth, you can either buy a separate package for your streaming video hosting needs, or move your entire site to an ISP who allows more generous monthly file transfers.  If you believe you must make a change, it is usually best to select an ISP who can host both your web site and your streaming video as part of a single package. Shy away from companies who package streaming video conversion services along with hosting.

Benchmark Streaming Video Hosting Costs

Benchmark streaming video hosting costs are approximately $50 per 70,000 minutes of video watched per month at 56K speeds. Companies who package video conversion with hosting have rates that can be 100 times benchmark.

If you absolutely need more bandwidth than your current ISP can provide you with, $50 per 70,000 minutes of viewing time at 56K is a good benchmark to remember when shopping for hosting. We have existing relationships with numerous ISP's who can provide you with streaming video hosting if you absolutely need it.

Some Actual Examples From The Table

Your actual bandwidth usage for including streaming video on your web site, is based on a number of factors which are included in the following tables. They are:

• The connection speeds that your video is encoded at. Most customers have us encode their videos at multiple delivery speeds so that users connected to the Net at higher speeds will experience substantially higher audio and video quality. This is further discussed and illustrated on our bandwidth comparisons page and our Surestream and adaptive rate encoding page.
• The number of people watching your video encoded at different speeds
• The length of your video
• Your allowed monthly file transfers in Gigabytes through your existing ISP

So for example, a 10 minute video encoded for delivery to 56K modem users and watched by 1,000 people per month would utilize only about 14% of a standard web site hosting package's allotted monthly file transfers. Looked at in a different way, these 1,000 views of a 10 minute video would use the equivalent of about $7.00 worth of what you're already paying per month for hosting. Using this scenario, it is highly unlikely that you would want to purchase an additional hosting package since your monthly file transfers are well within your monthly bandwidth usage allotment.

Remember that the charges shown below are not charges you will pay us, nor do they represent additional costs you will be paying your ISP. They are representative of the cost you are already paying for the portion of file transfers made per month that would be attributable to streaming video. Again, they are already part of what you're currently paying for your standard web site hosting services, but not currently using.

A second table further below illustrates potential costs for a company who maintains their own servers and uses a leased T1 line.

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Illustrative Bandwidth Usage For A Company Who Uses An Existing Internet Service Provider (ISP) To Host Their Site
Assumed Current Monthly Web Site Hosting Cost - $50.00 Assumed File Transfers Allowed Per Month With Current ISP - 20 Gigabytes
Visitors Watching Video Encoded For This Type of Connection Speed	Encoding Rate In Bits/ Second	File Size In Bytes Per Minute	% Of Monthly Transfers Used Per Minute Of Video	Calculated Cost Per View Per Minute Of Video	Calculated Cost Per View Per 10 Minutes Of Video	Portion Of Current Monthly Hosting Costs Attributable To 1,000 Views Of A 10 Minute Video
28.8 Modem	21,000	160,000	0.00080%	$0.0004	$0.0040	$4.00
56K Modem	37,000	280,000	0.00140%	$0.0007	$0.0070	$7.00
ISDN Modem or Slow Network	80,000	600,000	0.00300%	$0.0015	$0.0150	$15.00
Fast Network	150,000	1,125,000	0.00563%	$0.0028	$0.0281	$28.13
DSL or Cable Modem	250,000	1,875,000	0.00938%	$0.0047	$0.0469	$46.88
Each minute of streaming video uses only a very small percentage of what you're already allowed in monthly file transfers through your existing web hosting package.
Each minute of video watched by visitors to your web site uses the equivalent of less than a penny's worth of what you're already paying for web site hosting.
Someone using a 56K modem to watch a 10 minute video on your web site would use the equivalent of 7/10 of a cent's worth of what you're already paying for web site hosting.
1,000 people using 56K modems to watch a 10 minute video on your web site would use the equivalent of $7.00 worth of what you're already paying for web site hosting.

Self-hosted sites with leased T1 lines or greater enjoy even lower hosting costs as shown in the table below. If you're currently hosting your own site in-house, this table will help illustrate that you probably already have more than enough capacity to stream video from your existing server. If you don't, your options are either to bring in an additional leased line or to purchase a hosting package from an ISP.

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Illustrative Costs For A Company Who Already Hosts Their Own Site Using An Existing Leased T1 Line
Assumed Current Monthly T1 Cost - $800.00 Assumed Transfers Allowed Per Month - 500 Gigabytes
Visitors Watching Video Encoded For This Type of Connection Speed	Encoding Rate In Bits/ Second	File Size In Bytes Per Minute	% Of Monthly Transfers Used Per Minute Of Video	Calculated Cost Per View Per Minute Of Video	Calculated Cost Per View Per 10 Minutes Of Video	Portion Of Current Monthly Hosting Costs Attributable To 1,000 Views Of A 10 Minute Video
28.8 Modem	21,000	160,000	0.00003%	$0.0003	$0.0026	$2.56
56K Modem	37,000	280,000	0.00006%	$0.0004	$0.0045	$4.48
ISDN Modem or Slow Network Connection	80,000	600,000	0.00012%	$0.0010	$0.0096	$9.60
Fast Network	150,000	1,125,000	0.00023%	$0.0018	$0.0180	$18.00
DSL & Cable Modem	250,000	1,875,000	0.00038%	$0.0030	$0.0300	$30.00

CyberTech Media can provide high quality streaming video encoding services and complete technical support regardless of where your video will be hosted from.

Call Us For Special Video Hosting Needs

Please call us toll free at 630-690-2141 or e-mail us at media@cybertechmedia.com if you believe you absolutely must have have additional video hosting. We work with a number of ISP's who specialize in video hosting.

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