Content Delivery Video Pricing Rises In The First Half Of This Year

While most people assume that the cost of bandwidth is continuing to decline, the cost of delivering video over a content delivery network has gone up slightly this year. The big price drop in bandwidth has been on the network side of the business as opposed to the delivery side. Since most CDNs still charge on a per GB delivered model, that pricing has been pretty stable over the past 12 months and in the last 6 months, we've seen a price increase of between $0.02 - $0.03 per GB delivered.

The reason for this is primarily that CDN providers are no longer selling on price alone. They are selling on customer service, SLA, geographic reach, customized reporting and additional value ad services like content management and the like. And on the flip side, customers are now buying services based on these factors as opposed to just who gives the lowest pricing, which is the way they should all be buying.

Based on the pricing I have seen in the market which comes directly from customers contracts and RFPs that are sent to me weekly, asking for feedback, below is a breakdown range on the latest pricing trends for delivering audio and video content, across CDNs like Akamai, CacheLogic, Internap, Limelight Networks, Mirror Image, NaviSite and VeriSign.

• 1TB: High, $2.00GB, Low $1.50GB
• 5TB: High, $1.60GB, Low $0.95GB
• 10TB: High, $1.20GB, Low $0.89GB
• 25TB: High, $0.95GB, Low $0.75GB
• 50TB: High, $0.65, Low, $0.45GB
• 100TB: High, $0.29, Low, $0.19
• Above 100TB: It's all over the map

While delivery pricing will always vary based on many factors, the most important of which is the customers needs, the above pricing is the going rate today for delivery on all of the major CDNs. While I have seen that pricing rise slightly, I don't see the trend continuing for the rest of the year. I think the slight rise we have seen for the per GB delivered pricing model will pretty much flatten out the rest of the year.

For more details on pricing, you can watch my presentation from the Streaming Media East show in May entitled "HOW TO: Costs for Outsourced Hosting And Video Delivery" and can read my article from February entitled "How to Shop for Video Hosting: Five Questions To Ask".

Comments

[Jonathan Speaker]

Hey Dan,

you should also think to include the growing (and those of us that have been around since 2000) and sustaining midsize streaming providers. There are a good 10 other companies our size that can compete for delivery and service with a number of these companies you have listed.

cheers,
Jonathan

[Dan Rayburn]

Hi Jonathan, I agree, there are smaller more regional providers out there for these services, hence why I included them in my blog post entitled:

Comprehensive List Of Stream Hosting Providers
http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2007/04/comprehensive_l.html

But when it comes to pricing of the regional service providers, comparing pricing is a lot harder as the volume of GB transfered is much smaller and many of the providers have "packages" that include storage and transfer all together. It's a very different pricing model.

Thanks

--Dan

[Andrew]

Hi Dan,

Am i right? If i will generate about 100,000 Gbytes of traffic i will pay about $US 290,000?

If I want to use CDNs I must upload content(video or audio files, images) on a CDN's server and after this i must use special URLs to link to my content? And I can't use CDNs for any php, asp, js files and execute them?

All work about content caching(after I uploaded this to the CDN's server) CDN will do on his own so i don't have to pay for something else except transmitted data? And I must pay for both incoming and out coming traffic, right?

It all looks very sweet. But maybe here's any hidden rocks I can't see now?

Thanks for your very useful post.

cheers,
Andrew.

[Dan Rayburn]

Hi Andrew, I think your math may be a bit off or you are measuring this differently. I gave pricing in GB and you're quoting traffic numbers in Gb. A Gb is 1/8th of a GB.

The CDN typically charge based on total GB's delivered for the month over their network. You are correct in that delivering audio and video from a server on a CDN setup for that specific type of content cannot also serve your PHP or ASP files.

[Ron]

Hi Dan,

I'm currently with a 'regional' CDN provider in the US and am satisfied with their video delivery in the US but am exploring the option of adding a 'regional' CDN provider in Europe, with the intent the video stream may be better for clients I have based in Europe and Asia. I dont know if the delivery will be better because it originates there, but that's what I'd like to see.

Do you know where I might find a list of low-cost European regional CDN providers or do you happen to have some names (wmv/wma video streaming)? The Akamai's of the world are too high-priced for me.

Regards.

Ron

[Dan Rayburn]

Hi Ron, if you go to http://www.CDNlist.com I have a lot of European based service providers listed. Thanks.