Every way of running a TV channel is a bundle of the same four costs: playout (keeping the schedule on air), delivery (getting the picture to viewers), the facility (the room, hardware and people around it), and content. Cloud playout’s trick is structural: the facility becomes software, delivery becomes an internet problem the engine already solved, and what is left is a flat plan and your content. A first year on Launch is $3,048; on FAST, $8,160. You can budget the entire channel before you speak to anyone, which is exactly how buying software should work.
The legacy stack: three bills and a building
A satellite channel pays a transponder lease, an uplink, and a staffed playout facility, and the facility is usually the biggest and least examined line. None of it scales down for a quiet month and none of it reports who watched. The satellite to streaming guide covers the migration; the short version is that the facility disappears first and the transponder retires when your own numbers say so.
The meter: how cheap headlines become expensive channels
Metered cloud platforms publish attractive entry prices that assume you barely broadcast. Muvi’s published Playout tiers include 10 to 100 streaming hours a month against the ~730 a real channel runs, with $1 per hour and $0.09 per GB beyond; Amagi’s published pay-as-you-go rate is $4.10 per playout hour, roughly $2,993 a month before a single viewer, plus $30 per TB delivered. The calculators on the Muvi, Amagi and Janya comparison pages run these published rates at your audience size; do that arithmetic before trusting any headline. Platforms that meter by audience rather than by hour behave the same way, which the Lightcast comparison works through using their own published formula.
What the price includes here
Every plan carries the full broadcast layer: scheduling and the programme guide, burned-in graphics, SCTE-35 ad breaks with SSAI included, multistreaming, city-level analytics, and unlimited delivery. The full plan matrix lists every line, and the OTT Platform pricing covers branded on-demand services from $127 per month. No contract, cancel anytime, 7-day money-back on the first purchase.