Efficiently Producing 24/7 Live Streams: A Guide to 24/7 Streaming without the Requirement of a Dedicated PC or Live Transcoders

In 2012, Apple introduced a new capability in its HLS standard that enables a full reset of a decoder at any point. It is unclear if the feature was intended for ad insertion, channel or content switching, or content personalization, but it can be used for these purposes as well. This was my understanding at the time, and I used this feature to create my first VOD2Live channel in December 2012, before the term even existed.

In 2025, it is unnecessary to rely on a PC with playout software, a dependable internet connection, and related energy consumption and monitoring to operate one or multiple 24/7 channels. VOD2Live or Live+VOD2Live are much more credible solutions today

At that time, a standard OTT channel typically consisted of a combination of pre-recorded VOD and live (news, sports, special events) content that was scheduled using playout software, transcoded for terrestrial TV and satellite, then processed by a satellite receiver elsewhere (at an ISP or ISP transcoding provider) to create a multicast MPEG-2 transport stream, and finally transcoded again to create a segmented OTT stream. It is easy to see how these operations can be time-consuming and bring about latency, in addition to adding unnecessary transcoding for many video assets that did not require it, which can result in a decrease in the output quality. In this process, there were at least 3 transcoding steps.

iReplay was created in 2014 to streamline the process of broadcasting pre-recorded content on OTT platforms by directly producing OTT-ready outputs and incorporating live content in a similar format. This shift in approach reduces the need for excessive preparation and processing time on most channels. By contrast to “real channels”, they are sometimes called “virtual channels”

Live+VOD2Live channels refer to channels that combine live and pre-recorded content, but sometimes lack the ability to play out the content continuously. In contrast, iReplay-made channels have the capability, and always have been able since 2012, to play out content 24/7 by using an automatic, weighted random playlist. This allows for easy scheduling by simply selecting important pre-recorded content and determining when it should be played less frequently, if at all. In addition to that, tag-based channels or a browser-based playout software are available, allowing for a 24/7 TV channel to be scheduled minute by minute. Lastly, an iReplay broadcaster can give their audience the ability to select the next content of a TV channel (Jukebox TV demo here), or create their own personalized channel from the broadcaster's catalog, which can help increase the popularity of the content. Viewers and influencers can play a role in this by becoming curators.



FAST (Free Ad Supported Tv) channels, which feature targeted advertising on a selection of content that is continuously available as a 24/7 linear TV channel, have become a popular method for monetizing a catalog. These channels are simple to launch and cost-efficient to maintain, with automatic scheduling and ad insertion capabilities.

Individuals who create niche or popular content, such as YouTube channel creators (and their audience), can now create their own 24/7 TV channel(s), TV app for as little as $0.001 per minute, and share them on third-party apps, TV platforms or set-top boxes like Roku and Apple TV.

Article written by
Sylvain Corvaisier

Independent streaming and iOS engineer

Last modified: January 22nd, 2025