While content delivery networks (CDNs) remain a critical component of fast, reliable streaming, they’ve also become one of the largest and least flexible costs in the delivery stack. According to Sima Labs, CDN usage alone can consume between 15–30% of an OTT provider’s total budget, placing significant pressure on margins, particularly during major live events or unpredictable traffic peaks. For many content providers, the solution to these challenges has often been to add more CDN capacity, redundancy or contracts, driving costs higher without the guarantee of more reliable delivery or higher QoE. With CDNs forming a crucial part of the delivery chain, the question is not whether to replace existing systems, but how to increase their efficiency.

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In this article, we explore how System73 reduces streaming costs through intelligent architecture, combining Edge Analytics and Edge Intelligence to minimize CDN dependency, improve network efficiency and deliver measurable savings.

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Why CDN-based streaming infrastructure struggles with cost efficiency

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CDNs are essential to modern OTT streaming infrastructure, but it’s a cost model that scales poorly as audiences grow and viewing quality improves. CDN pricing is mostly based on volume, meaning higher bitrates, longer viewing sessions, and larger audiences lead to higher costs. Take traffic spikes during live events for example, content providers often have to over-provision capacity in advance to keep the quality of experience high. That means paying for bandwidth whether it's used or not.

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These inefficiencies are exacerbated in regions with limited CDN coverage, where congestion and higher transit costs are common. When performance begins to dip, traditional CDN setups can't offer much insight into what's going on, so providers often simply add capacity or extra CDN contracts. The result typically translates into declining CDN efficiency, rising operational spending, and a streaming infrastructure that gets more expensive to scale, without any guarantee that viewers will see an improvement in performance.

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System73’s arsenal to reduce streaming costs

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System73 approaches OTT cost reduction from a simple premise, which is that most streaming infrastructures already work, they’re just not being used efficiently. So, instead of replacing CDNs or forcing a major architectural overhaul, System73 sits alongside your existing streaming infrastructure and simply makes it smarter. Using Edge Intelligence, System73 builds AI-driven, centrally orchestrated peer-to-peer broadcast trees that offload 50–70% of streaming traffic (depending on the event) away from congested CDN paths, while still using CDNs as reliable entry and control points.

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Edge Analytics is what makes this system possible at scale. This solution provides unprecedented, real-time visibility across the open internet, constantly analysing network conditions, congestion and routing performance in order to inform Edge Intelligence. When a more efficient path has been detected, the latter adapts delivery automatically by sending high-bitrate streams over the least congested routes and reducing unnecessary CDN usage. The result is improved CDN efficiency, lower delivery costs, and more reliable QoE for viewers, all without changing your players, workflows or underlying streaming infrastructure.

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Proven OTT cost reduction during live, high-traffic events

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The impact of our solutions becomes most evident when applied during large, unpredictable live events, where traditional CDN costs typically spike. During the CONMEBOL Copa América Final 2023, we successfully offloaded around 70% of streaming traffic onto centrally orchestrated broadcast trees, and kept up to 95% of viewers on the highest rendition for their device. By reducing reliance on physical CDNs during peak demand in this way, the content provider achieved approximately 50% savings on delivery costs, without sacrificing quality or reliability.

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We achieved similar results during the UEFA Champions League Final in 2023, delivering the event globally with no prior planning. We successfully maintained over 90% of viewers at their highest supported bitrate and reduced delivery costs by some 64%. In markets with challenging infrastructure, such as Jordan, our solutions have also reduced CDN load by as much as 90% while enabling consistent 1080p delivery. These are just some of the results that highlight how improved CDN efficiency and intelligent traffic optimization translate directly into measurable OTT cost reduction, even within complex, high-pressure streaming environments.

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For more information on improving CDN efficiency, smarter streaming infrastructure, or to book a call with a member of our team, visit system73.com.

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