Let’s say both the livestream and the video are viewed in 480p. How much data would be consumed in 1 hour for each?
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If you are talking about the bandwidth used to send one pre-recorded video vs. one from a livestream, both from the same server to the same device, then the amount of data is largely the same (with some small variance based on the video actually being sent).
However, the way most video platforms are designed, they make use of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to deliver the video. The source server will send the video content to several servers strategically placed around the world. When a consumer requests the video, they are directed to a nearby server to fetch the video, so that there is less network congestion , latency , and less contention of resources .
Congestion – How much traffic is filling up the lanes
Latency – Time waiting. It takes longer to send data thousands of miles than tens of miles
Contention of Resources – One server can get overloaded with too many requests. Hundreds of servers around the world can handle many more requests.
So, for a pre-recorded video – there is a higher likelihood that the content has already been delivered to a CDN satellite server that is nearby to your location when you start to watch the video. If 1000 people in your city are all watching the same video in the same hour, they all are just fetching it from nearby.
A live-streamed video can also be delivered by a CDN, but it’s usually less efficient, and there’s a chance that everybody watching it is having to retrieve the data from the source. So more data is congesting larger portions of the entire internet, instead of just congesting local pipes.
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