Streaming Platforms and CDNs: Time for Disruption
Streaming platforms have long relied on content delivery networks (CDNs) to ensure subscribers can view their offerings—but that dependence is starting to fray. The streaming boom has redefined how people watch video, and CDNs have been the backbone making it possible. They carry the weight of enormous expectations: to deliver live sports, binge-worthy series, and premium films instantly, in high resolution, and without hiccups.
That kind of seamless experience isn’t magic. It’s infrastructure specifically tuned to deliver streaming video. And that infrastructure is under strain.
You see it most clearly during high-profile live events—especially sports—where a few seconds of buffering can ruin the experience for millions. What most viewers don’t realize is how many technical dominoes must align for that stream to reach their screen. Traffic can pass through thousands of autonomous systems, each one a potential point of failure. And when things go wrong, it’s the streaming platform that gets the blame, not the delivery system supporting it.
CDNs are clearly strategic partners for content streamers, yet content delivery is often viewed as a commodity service. This has resulted in massive turmoil within the CDN industry. Several CDNs have already collapsed under the pressure or simply left the market. Other CDNs, to remain viable, have diversified into areas such as security and edge computing. That might be a great business strategy for the CDNs—but it means they’re no longer solely focused on the needs of streaming video platforms.
The Straining Forces
Operating in a competitive environment themselves, streaming platforms have long pressed CDNs to improve the economics surrounding content delivery. And for years, CDNs have tried to keep pace, offering more for less. But even with dramatic increases in traffic volume (which are likely to continue indefinitely), declining unit prices mean that traditional CDNs are merely treading water. Delivering high-quality video, especially at scale, requires real investment—hardware, infrastructure, people.
The economics of the current CDN model make that investment difficult and long-term business viability questionable. What’s worse, this isn’t just about a few business failures. The whole ecosystem is at risk. As CDNs go out of business or pivot away, streaming platforms will find themselves with fewer options—and less control.
A Way Forward
What’s needed is the disruption of the manner in which CDNs provide services. The price streaming platforms are willing to pay for delivery of their precious cargo is not going to go up–in fact it’s likely to continue going down (while content volume continues to explode). However, since streaming platforms need a financially healthy CDN industry, CDNs need to develop more cost-effective underlying infrastructure able to satisfy quality and capacity benchmarks in a profitable manner. In other words, disrupt the status quo.
Fundamentally, in this context disruption means doing things differently and innovating in such a way that streaming platforms can obtain the scale, capacity, and quality they require. CDNs need to align their costs to the economics of the streaming industry by rethinking rigid business models and engineering principles. That means embracing a cloud-like, elastic delivery model: No more massive fixed-cost infrastructure; CDNs need to offer capacity that spins up and down with demand—particularly around live events.
It also means doubling down on what matters to streamers: ultra-low latency, purpose built for streaming video, dynamic capacity based on real-time performance metrics, and even visibility into ISP last-mile networks. This is how you reduce buffering. This is how you win at sports streaming.
Most importantly, it’s how CDNs justify their role in the delivery chain—and survive.
This Is the Moment
The future of streaming isn’t just about who has the best content. It’s about who can deliver that content with sterling quality to tens of millions of users at once. That future depends on CDNs.
The industry is at an inflection point. If streaming platforms continue to treat CDNs as interchangeable commodities, they’ll be left with fewer partners, less innovation, and ultimately, unhappy viewers. But it’s not a foregone conclusion.
The good news? There’s still time to build something sustainable. CDNs are ready to disrupt prevailing models—if they have partners who value what they do. This isn’t about nostalgia for the past. It’s about building a smarter future—one where content platforms and CDNs thrive together. One where costs are realistic, service is exceptional, and viewers win.
[Editor's note: This is a contributed article from Netskrt Systems. Streaming Media accepts vendor bylines based solely on their value to our readers.]
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