Before you can jump right in to starting an Internet TV station your first objective is to develop an understanding of what your project needs are. This will help you to formulate the best setup for you.
An Internet TV streaming system includes four key elements:
1. Content Presentation Player - customized media player
2. Media Asset Management system
3. Broadcast Management system
4. Content Delivery Network
Not all of these elements are required for every project AND more importantly, NOT all of these elements are needed to start streaming.
Here are quick definitions of these key elements:

• Content Presentation Player - customized player
  
  The presentation layer of your Internet TV station. Generally this player is similar to a DVD player User Interface. It is typically built to match your corporate colors and look. Pricing is usually included in any Internet TV system but costs can be based on player functionality options. If you wanted to hire a programmer to build one your self you could do so at www.getafreelancer.com probably for less than $300.
• Media Asset Management [MAM]
  
  This is your archived media system. It generally includes an auto up loader and encoding system that allows for bulk storing and encoding of your media in various bit rates and formats.
• Broadcast Management System
  
  The heart of the Internet TV / Streaming system. The Broadcast management system is what drives the user experience of your online TV presentation. It is this part of the software and web application that provides the real value. It is fully integrated into both the player and MAM and will allow easy drag and drop functionality of content, ads and idents. This is what we use to schedule and play your video content.
  
  If you are already broadcasting, you may only require certain parts of this solution. Cost is generally tied to the number of channels to be broadcast, advertising requirements, number of formats and bitrates to be broadcast along with the length of the broadcast day. Bitrates refers to the speed of the internet connection of your users. For example you may want to stream your internet TV at 200K and 500K so that your viewers have a choice based on their internet speed.
• Content Delivery Network [CDN]
  
  This is how your content is delivered to the end viewer. A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a term coined in the late 1990's to describe a system of computers networked together across the Internet that cooperate transparently to deliver content (especially large media content) to end users. As important as all other aspects of the internet broadcasting system, the CDN must be powerful enough to reach your audience no matter where they are. Choosing a company that has servers around the world would be a wise choice. Your cost is predicated on the audience numbers over a month, and peak or concurrent audience numbers at any given time (say for special live events). In other words the more viewers you have viewing your channel at the same time the higher the cost of your bandwidth.

Important questions to help put together an Internet TV package at the right cost:
Are you streaming now?
If yes - in what formats?
Do you have a website?
Do you have an existing online streaming audience?
Are you broadcasting now?
How are you broadcasting?
What kind of content are you intending to broadcast?
How many channels do you need or want?
What is the length of your broadcast day?
How much content do you have now?
How many media files will you archive?
What is the file size of the total number of media files?
Is your project using advertising to pay for the project?
Do you have advertisers now?
How are you financed?
What are your growth plans?
I have included a link to a recent project so you can review proof of concept:

www.sail.tv

INTERNET PROTOCOL TELEVISION (Internet TV)
Starting a successful Internet TV station is about choosing the right software. Software that can manage the vast amount of media and configure it to play out to multiple devices such as Mobile, Web and Set Top Box.
A great software solution provides the connection between media and delivery. It includes:
      Management to group together the same video clip into multiple codecs and variable bitrates.. In other words you can broadcast your video in multiple formats and speeds to allow for the max amount of viewers.
      Program Management to create streaming programs from multiple packages such as an Ident, Content, Advertising and Bumpers all as one Program. In other words you have software that will piece together your videos, commercial and any other content into one streaming Internet TV Channel.
      Rule-based Advertising insert manager.
      Program scheduling to create a TV style Channel play out.
      Video on Demand creation and serving.
      Delivery to multiple targets and multiple delivery speeds from Mobile devices to Set Top Box at high bitrates on private multicast networks.
      Payment Gateway for Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Annual programs for any paid programming you may have.
      Subscription management.
If you do not want to put this together yourself we will do it for you. We have all the latest software and encoders to give you the best Internet TV channel at the best price. Prices starting at $185/month.

Call us at 325-893-3422 (USA) or email us at Lee@tvstartup.com to get set up now.

Click here for pricing