What a channel costs
Hardware and bandwidth are not in these numbers, because they are not ours to sell. The platform runs on your GPU host and your CDN, which is the point of a self-hosted deployment and the reason there is no margin stacked on top of your egress bill.
How that compares to the metered vendors
The large ad-insertion platforms bill by usage. These are their own published list prices, and they are the reason a flat licence is worth comparing against at all:
The arithmetic that matters is not the unit rate, it is where the lines cross. A metered platform is cheaper than a licence while your volume is small and more expensive once it is not — and it crosses over without warning you, because the bill only arrives after the traffic does. A flat licence takes the surprise out of the model entirely.
Support tiers
Support is priced as a percentage of the licence, which is how enterprise software has always been priced and therefore what procurement expects to see:
Most single-channel and regional customers stay on Standard indefinitely. Business and Enterprise exist for operators running a channel lineup where an outage has a contractual cost attached to it.
What drives your number up or down
The single biggest lever. The tier at ten channels is a real step down in per-channel price, not a rounding.
A corner bug on a fixed schedule is the simple case. Rotating sponsors, dayparted rhythms and fullscreen breaks add configuration, not licence cost.
A plain HLS hand-off is included. A VAST client, an ad-server connector or SCTE-35 conditioning against a third-party packager is project work.
Your GPU host, your cloud, or a host we help you size. The licence does not change; your infrastructure bill does.
Insertion logs come with the platform. A campaign database with advertiser-facing reporting is a build, and is quoted as one.
Standard covers IST business hours. Anything with an SLA and a credit clause attached is priced against the licence, above.
How to get an actual number
Send three things and you get a quote rather than a range: how many channels, what your source looks like (HLS, RTMP, or an SDI feed that still needs an encoder), and which ad formats you intend to sell. If you already know the rhythm you want — say, 30 seconds every 10 minutes across an 18-hour broadcast day — include it, because that determines whether your channels need one encoder or several.
If you would rather see it than cost it, ask for the pilot instead. It puts monetised output on your own channel, and that is a far better basis for a decision than any price list, including ours. The formats it can put on screen are described on the L-shape ad banner page, and the pipeline behind it on the SSAI page.
Frequently asked questions
How much does live ad insertion cost?+
A StreamAdsPro licence lists at $599 per channel per month, self-hosted, with no per-insertion or per-impression fee. At ten or more channels that tiers down to $400 per channel per month. Most channels start with a paid pilot of $2,500 to $4,000 one-time, which puts monetised output on one or two of your real channels for 30 days before any subscription begins.
Why a flat per-channel price instead of a CPM?+
Because a flat price is a number you can budget and a CPM is not. Usage pricing means your platform bill rises exactly as your audience rises, so success costs you more. A per-channel licence is knowable a year ahead: multiply channels by months. It is also the shape that makes sense for a self-hosted deployment, where we are not serving the impressions and therefore cannot meter them.
Is there a per-impression or per-insertion fee?+
No. The licence covers unlimited insertions on the licensed channel. AWS Elemental MediaTailor charges $0.50 per 1,000 live ad insertions and broadpeak.io charges $0.49 CPM on a $200 monthly minimum; on a channel doing real volume, those meters are the entire bill. We do not run one.
What does the pilot include?+
A pilot takes one or two of your real channels, not a demo feed, and delivers monetised HLS output for 30 days with your creative, your schedule and your branding. You see the actual picture your viewers would see before you commit to a licence. Temple and faith livestreams get a free 30-day pilot rather than a paid one.
What is not included in the licence price?+
Hardware and bandwidth. Because the platform is self-hosted, the GPU host and the CDN egress are yours — which is also why there is no margin stacked on top of them. Integration work beyond the standard HLS or RTMP hand-off, such as a VAST client or an ad-server connector, is quoted per project.
Do you support broadcasters based in India?+
Yes. StreamAdsPro is built and operated from Thane, Maharashtra, and standard support runs on IST business hours, which means a same-working-day response rather than an overnight round trip to a US or EU vendor. The company is DPIIT-recognised and Udyam registered, so it can be procured by Indian entities that require it.
Keep reading
What the licence actually buys — the pipeline that stitches ads into your live stream.
The format most regional channels sell first, and the arithmetic behind what it earns.
Where a flat licence fits against rev-share and ad-network economics for an Indian channel.
Video-technology engineer in Thane, India. Send me one live stream URL and I will run a free test on your own feed. You get my reply within one working day (IST), from the person who builds it, not a sales queue.
Bring us your stream.
Send us one live URL and what you want on it. We will put a demo on your own feed before you commit to anything.