Video Streaming Content Delivery – What to Look for in a CDN in 2025

Do you know how to become successful in professional online video broadcasting? By providing your audience with an unmatched viewer experience. For their investment in video to be effective, businesses must deliver an enjoyable viewing experience each time they stream live or upload a VOD.

In 2025, streaming technology is cutting edge, and audience tastes are more discerning. That means there is no room, or excuse, for poor-quality video content riddled with technical issues. A recent study shows that even a 1% increase in buffering can significantly lower audience engagement.

Live streaming and broadcasting is a $674.25 billion industry, so if companies want a piece of that pie, they must deliver ultra-low latency, high-quality, and reliable video. Investing in professional cameras, microphones, lighting equipment, and encoders will get you halfway there, but there is another piece to the puzzle. An online video platform with a robust Content Delivery Network (CDN) that can help you flawlessly deliver top-notch content worldwide.

In this post, we’ll explain what a CDN is and why you need a multi-CDN for live video. We’ll focus on the key features a CDN for live streaming should have, emerging trends, and how Dacast, with support from Akamai, uses cutting-edge technology to deliver superior performance.

Table of Contents

• Video Streaming Delivery: The Basics
• What Affects Video Content Delivery?
• What Are CDNs and How They Power Live Streaming in 2025
• What to Look for in a CDN
• Leading CDNs Comparison
• Dacast CDN Integration and Strategy
• Rising CDN Trends for 2025
• FAQs
• Conclusion

Video Streaming Delivery: The Basics

Buffering issues remain one of the most serious concerns for live stream viewers, and this problem has persisted over time. In fact, one of the oldest studies regarding this issue was done back in 2007, and tried to find a solution to playback delay when streaming.

Buffering and similar issues are directly related to the quality of video streaming delivery. Delivering video streams over the internet is a highly complex process. It requires integrated technology to route, encode, transcode, cache, and deliver content to audiences across the globe.

Professional broadcasters have different goals: some generate revenue, others boost brand engagement. But most share a common objective: minimizing churn by delivering consistently high-quality videos and streams.

Fortunately, there are a variety of factors that broadcasters can control to optimize their video content delivery.

What Affects Video Content Delivery?

There are different components that broadcasters can control that affect video content delivery, including internet connection, video player, streaming protocols, adaptive bitrate streaming, and CDNs.

Let’s examine these factors one by one.

Internet Connection

A strong internet connection is a must for streaming over the internet. This applies to both the broadcaster and the viewers. An unstable connection on either end can introduce latency, buffering, and even complete stream failure.  A broadcaster’s server needs to deliver video streams that can adapt to different bandwidth capabilities to avoid buffering for viewers with slower connections.

A good internet upload speed for streaming is:

• For low resolution 240p or 360p) – 672 kbps
• For common HD streaming (720p or 1080p) – 3 Mbps to 12 Mbps
• For high-quality streaming (4K) – 61.5 Mbps

Ideally, your internet speed should be at least 2.5x the target bitrate or video bandwidth you plan to stream with.

Streaming Protocols

A streaming protocol is a technology that carries the video signal from its origin to viewers. The protocols most relevant in professional online video broadcasting  include:

• HLS: Currently, the most widely used protocol for streaming delivery because it is compatible with the HTML5 video player and other related streaming technologies. It enables adaptive bitrate streaming, allowing content to adjust to varying network conditions.
• DASH: The international standard for adaptive bitrate streaming over HTTP. Like HLS, it allows for dynamic video quality adjustment based on the viewer’s internet connection, providing smooth playback. DASH is widely supported across non-Apple devices and platforms.
• RTMP: When Adobe’s Flash player was still the standard video player for online streaming, RTMP was the primary protocol for streaming delivery. While its role in last-mile delivery to viewers has diminished, RTMP remains a standard protocol for ingesting live streams from encoders to streaming platforms due to its low latency for contribution.
• WebRTC: Used for streaming in real-time. It’s becoming increasingly popular in 2025, particularly for applications requiring ultra-low latency, such as interactive webinars, online gaming, and virtual communication. It was developed for virtual meetings where participants need to interact with each other directly in the browser.
• SRT: It offers high-quality, secure, and low-latency video transport over unreliable networks. It’s particularly favored for contribution feeds and demanding live productions where maintaining integrity and speed are paramount, bridging the gap between traditional broadcast quality and internet delivery.
• RIST: An open-source, interoperable standard for reliable and low-latency video transport over unmanaged IP networks. Similar to SRT, RIST is increasingly used for professional contribution and backhaul links, providing high-quality, secure delivery of live video between production sites, cloud services, and CDNs.
• RTSP: While less common for direct web playback today, RTSP is still widely used in specific applications like IP surveillance cameras, some IoT devices, and certain enterprise video systems for controlling the delivery of real-time media streams.

Video Players

Your video player plays a huge role in streaming delivery because it’s what makes your content accessible to viewers. Even in 2025, the HTML5 video player is still the de facto standard. It’s universally compatible across virtually all modern web browsers, operating systems, and devices.

The beauty of HTML5 video players is that they are open-source. Broadcasters can tailor the player’s appearance, functionality, and user interface to align perfectly with their brand, goals, and needs.

While tweaking the video player settings, it’s best to maintain the best streaming practices for the given video host so that everything functions properly with delivery. This includes optimizing the player for adaptive streaming, making it responsive for all devices, as well as compatible with WebRTC and SRT for low-latency delivery.

Adaptive Bitrate Streaming

As we mentioned, each viewer’s internet connections affect the quality of the video delivered to them. While broadcasters can’t control these varying internet connections, they can accommodate them.

Adaptive bitrate streaming is the technology that many broadcasters use to stream to viewers with different internet speeds. Here’s how this works:

1. The original video source is encoded into multiple versions, each with a different resolution and bitrate.
2. When a viewer starts playback, the video player software on their device assesses their internet connection speed.
3. Based on the available bandwidth or what the network connection can handle, the video player chooses the most suitable video rendition from the available options.
4. The video plays without buffering interruptions, even on slower connections.
5. The player continuously monitors the connection and can smoothly switch between these versions throughout the playback.

Adaptive bitrate streaming requires the support of a compatible video player and streaming protocols. It also requires video transcoding tools to create the different renditions of the stream.

Content Delivery Networks

CDNs are critical for delivering high-quality streams and ensuring a positive user experience. Live streaming is incredibly bandwidth-intensive, and large video files can easily overwhelm standard internet connections if not delivered strategically.

Using CDN for live streaming helps reduce buffering, lagging, and other issues that affect video streaming delivery quality. It sends the video content to the servers rather than directly to the viewers. From there, the servers distribute it accordingly.

By intelligently routing and caching content closer to your audience, a live streaming CDN dramatically reduces buffering, lagging, and other issues that impact video quality.

What Are CDNs and How They Power Live Streaming in 2025

A Content Distribution Network, also known as a “content delivery network” or “CDN”, is a system of servers spread over different geographical regions that deliver media to users far from the source.

When a user requests a video from a platform, the CDN finds the closest server with a cached copy of that video. This significantly reduces the distance the data travels, resulting in much faster loading times and a smoother video performance.

In short, a CDN is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers linked via high-speed internet cables. They offer high availability and performance by distributing the service spatially relative to end-users. Some of the types of media that CDNs distribute include:

• Text
• Images
• Video
• Web files (JS, CSS)
• Audio
• Live streams, etc.

But how are they able to do all that exactly? This is how a video and live streaming Content Delivery Network addresses the complexities of video delivery:

• Distributed Server Network: Instead of content traveling directly from a single origin server to every viewer, a CDN places copies of your video content on numerous servers located at various Points of Presence (PoPs) around the world. These “edge servers” are strategically positioned closer to end-users.
• Content Caching: When a user requests a video, the CDN intelligently directs their request to the nearest edge server that has a cached copy of that content. This noticeably reduces the physical distance the data travels, minimizing latency and loading time.
• Intelligent Traffic Routing: Modern CDNs use sophisticated algorithms to route user requests. In 2025, this often includes AI-powered CDN routing that can predict traffic patterns, avoid congested network paths, and dynamically select the optimal server for each user based on real-time performance metrics.
• Load Balancing: CDNs distribute incoming traffic across their network, preventing any single server from overloading. The performance is consistent, even during massive spikes in viewership for live streaming content delivery network events.
• Enhanced Reliability and Redundancy: If one server or network path experiences an issue, the CDN automatically reroutes traffic to another healthy server, ensuring continuous availability and a seamless viewing experience. This is a foundational concept for multi-CDN for live video strategies.
• Edge Computing and Processing: Beyond simple caching, edge CDN for video integrates edge computing capabilities. Certain video processing tasks, like transcoding, ad insertion, or even real-time analytics, can happen closer to the viewer, further reducing latency and improving responsiveness.

What to Look for in a CDN

To select the best CDN for video streaming in 2025, you first must have an understanding of its capabilities that go far beyond basic content delivery. That includes elements like geographic distribution of the servers, average performance, live streaming features, etc. Let’s take a closer look at these factors and see why they matter.

1. Number of Servers and Global PoP Distribution

A key element of a good CDN for live streaming is a large number of servers. The absolute size of the server network can be used as a proxy for scalability and overall speed. The more servers in a network, the more bandwidth the network can handle.

In practice, this translates to less congestion for users and a better overall experience. A powerful live streaming CDN simply has a large number of servers available.

The distribution of servers is another key element of a global CDN for video streaming. CDNs operate via what’s called “PoP,” or Points of Presence. This refers to “edge” servers in the CDN network that deliver content directly to viewers.

The strategic geographic distribution of these PoPs determines how quickly your content reaches diverse audiences. The closer a given viewer is located to the nearest PoP edge server, the better their streaming experience is likely to be. A CDN with a wide global distribution minimizes the distance data travels, leading to:

• Reduced Latency: Faster initial load times and less delay in live streaming content delivery.
• Minimized Buffering: Consistent stream quality even during peak demand.
• Enhanced User Experience (UX): A smoother, more enjoyable viewing journey for audiences regardless of their location.

Many video streaming CDNs don’t have a huge distribution of edge servers. Typically, concentrations are high in major cities in the US and Europe. Once you start moving to other regions of the world, servers may be sparse or non-existent. 

When this is the case, users located in these areas will see slower download speeds, lower-quality videos, more buffering problems, and longer video startup times.

Ideally, your edge CDN for video should have strong concentrations in your primary target markets (e.g., North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific) and a solid presence in emerging markets where internet infrastructure might be less developed. Regardless of the content you’re streaming, you must use a CDN that has a broad global distribution of CDN servers.

2. The Average Performance and Low Latency

Beyond just server count, you also must take a look at a CDN’s real-world performance. This includes consistent throughput, the ability to maintain low-latency CDN delivery, and average response times (speed).

While direct comparisons can be tricky due to fluctuating internet conditions, CDN performance reports and real-time monitoring tools can provide insights into a CDN’s average speed and reliability. Various CDN comparisons look at different providers and average out their performance across long periods to help you get a sense of which is fastest.

Minimizing latency leads to a near real-time experience, especially for interactive content or low latency CDN for sports and event live streaming.

3. Live Streaming Features

Not all CDNs are created equal when it comes to live video. Look for a CDN that is purpose-built to meet the demands of live content. Key features include:

• On-the-fly provisioning: The ability to instantly spin up and scale live stream delivery resources as needed.
• Dynamic scaling: Automatically adjusting bandwidth and server capacity to handle unpredictable surges in concurrent viewers without compromising quality.
• Support for live streaming protocols: Compatibility with protocols like HLS, DASH, SRT, and WebRTC.

For example, on the Akamai CDN network, launching as many simultaneous live streams as you desire is fast and easy. We call this live channel provisioning, and it’s an advantage of this specific CDN network.

4. Advanced Security Features

A secure CDN for streaming should offer a comprehensive suite of features to protect your content and your audience:

• DRM Support: Essential for content protection, especially for premium or exclusive video.
• Token-based Authentication: Provides an extra layer of security by requiring a unique, time-limited token for content access.
• Geo-restriction: Allows you to enforce geographical viewing restrictions necessary for licensing agreements and regional distribution rights.
• DDoS Mitigation: Protects your streams and infrastructure from malicious distributed denial-of-service attacks, ensuring uptime.
• TLS Encryption at the Edge: Encrypts data in transit from the CDN’s edge servers to the viewer, safeguarding content from interception.
• WAF (Web Application Firewall): Protecting against common web exploits that could target your video platform.
• IP Whitelisting/Blacklisting: Have a better handle on rights management by controlling where your content can be accessed based on specific IP addresses.

5. Sustainable CDN Practices

Streaming and broadcasting are responsible for 4% of all global emissions. Considering all the resources it requires, environmental awareness is important. Look for providers with sustainable CDN practices. Those committed to energy-efficient delivery, using renewable energy sources for their data centers, and optimizing their networks to reduce their carbon footprint.

Leading CDNs Comparison

Now that you know what to look for in a video CDN provider in 2025, let’s see how the leading ones stack up next to each other.

Dacast CDN Integration and Strategy

There are many different CDN providers on the market today. Here at Dacast, we know that delivering an outstanding streaming experience means using the absolute best content delivery tech out there. That’s why we partner with Akamai to deliver the content that is hosted on our streaming solution.

Akamai has more than 360,000 servers, making it the largest server network of any CDN. Plus, its network is global, spanning a range of more than 135 countries, which is wider than any other CDN by far. This massive infrastructure means Dacast users benefit from:

• Unmatched Global Reach: Your content gets delivered from servers closest to your audience, guaranteeing top speed and quality no matter where they are. This makes Dacast a prime choice for a global CDN for video streaming.
• Exceptional Reliability and Performance: Akamai’s network is built for enterprise-grade performance and has a proven history of uptime and efficiency. This means fewer buffering headaches and faster video starts. Its scale directly translates into smooth live stream provisioning and scalability, letting Dacast handle huge numbers of viewers for big events.
  
• Advanced Features: Akamai’s sophisticated capabilities, like adaptive media delivery and cloud wrapper solutions, are seamlessly built into the Dacast platform, putting cutting-edge tools in broadcasters’ hands without needing to manage CDNs directly.

International tests also tend to show a 15-20% speed advantage for Akamai as a result of its larger global distribution. This is particularly important for live streaming as it leads to fewer viewing problems, such as buffering issues. 

China Delivery with ICP License

Getting video content flowing smoothly into mainland China presents unique hurdles, thanks to strict internet rules (the “Great Firewall”) and specific local requirements. Dacast has proactively tackled these complexities.

Dacast holds a coveted ICP certification. This is a mandatory license from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for online services operating within mainland China. Without an ICP license, content hosted outside China faces severe slowdowns or complete blocks. Thanks to our certification, we are qualified to provide content delivery in China for video. 

We also have a partnership with a China-compliant video CDN provider with ICP license that has multiple Points of Presence (PoPs) inside mainland China. Your content breezes past the Great Firewall, avoiding the usual delays and blocks that hit non-compliant services, making Dacast a solid China-compliant video CDN provider with an ICP license.

Upcoming Multi-CDN Platform Development

Dacast is constantly innovating to offer the best CDN for high-quality live video streaming. Currently, our team is busy building an advanced multi-CDN platform. This cutting-edge system will bring together the strengths and resources of several leading CDN providers, including our strong partnership with Akamai.

This upcoming multi-CDN capability will push Dacast’s video streaming delivery to the next level by:

• Boosting Reliability: Adding another layer of protection, making sure service stays almost uninterrupted, even if a major problem hits one CDN provider.
• Optimizing Performance: Smartly sending each viewer’s request through the absolute best-performing CDN at that exact moment, using live performance data from multiple networks. This further cuts down delay and buffering, which is key for low-latency CDN for sports and event live streaming.
• Improving Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness: Dynamically balancing traffic across CDNs based on live cost and performance info.
• Maximizing Global Reach: Using the combined global footprint of multiple top-tier CDNs to deliver content everywhere, without equal.

Rising CDN Trends for 2025

CDN providers are always trying to edge out the competition. That’s why they are always following and creating trends that make their service faster, more reliable, and widespread. They are jumping on the 5G and AI bandwagon, and rapidly working on Multi-CDN, amongst other things.

Multi-CDN Orchestration

To improve redundancy and performance, providers are working on multi-CDN orchestration. Instead of relying on a single Content Delivery Network, a multi-CDN setup uses two or more providers simultaneously. This strategy offers significant advantages:

• Enhanced Redundancy: If one CDN experiences an outage or performance degradation, traffic is seamlessly rerouted to another, minimizing downtime.
  
• Optimized Performance: Intelligent routing algorithms can direct user requests to the best-performing CDN in real-time, based on factors like network congestion, server load, and geographical proximity.
  
• Increased Flexibility and Cost-Effectiveness: By diversifying CDN providers, businesses can negotiate better terms, avoid vendor lock-in, and dynamically switch between CDNs based on real-time cost and performance metrics.

AI-Powered Routing

CDN operations are moving beyond static content delivery into predictive traffic steering. AI-powered routing systems analyze vast amounts of data, including real-time network conditions, historical traffic patterns, and user location and device type. All this information allows AI to:

• Proactively avoid bottlenecks: Rerouting traffic before congestion impacts user experience.
  
• Dynamically select optimal paths: Ensuring content always takes the fastest, most reliable route to the viewer.
  
• Fine-tune caching strategies: Optimizing content placement on edge servers for faster access.

5G and CDN Synergy

The rollout of 5G networks is creating a powerful synergy with CDNs, particularly benefiting mobile users. The characteristics of this technology, such as ultra-low latency and higher bandwidth, make video delivery over 5G easier than ever. It complements CDN capabilities by:

• Enriching mobile streaming experiences: Delivering 4K and even 8K content with minimal buffering on mobile devices.
  
• Reducing last-mile latency: The close proximity of 5G base stations to users, combined with CDN edge servers, significantly cuts down the time it takes for data to reach mobile viewers.
  
• Facilitating new interactive applications: Lower latency supports real-time interactions, cloud gaming, and immersive VR/AR experiences directly on mobile devices.
  
• Improving offload efficiency: CDNs can offload more traffic from core mobile networks.

CDN-as-a-Service (CDNaaS)

Traditional models often involve direct contracts with CDN providers. They require technical expertise for integration, configuration, and ongoing management. While they offer deep customization, they can be resource-intensive.

CDNaaS, on the other hand, provides a more simplified, managed approach. It abstracts away much of the underlying infrastructure complexity, offering:

• Easier integration: Often through APIs or pre-built connectors with existing platforms.
  
• Scalability on demand: Resources are provisioned and scaled automatically based on usage, typically with a pay-as-you-go model.
  
• Reduced operational overhead: The provider handles infrastructure maintenance, security updates, and performance optimization.
  
• Faster time to market: Businesses can deploy and manage content delivery more quickly without extensive in-house CDN expertise.

FAQs

1. How is CDN different from traditional video hosting solutions?

Traditional web hosting relies on a single server location, which can become overloaded and lead to buffering and lag, especially for viewers far away. 

However, a video streaming CDN network caches your video streams on servers closer to your viewers, reducing the distance the data needs to travel.

2. What are some key features to look for in a video CDN provider?

There are several factors to consider when choosing a video CDN provider. Here are a few key features:

• The number of servers in the network: A larger server network minimizes latency (wait time) for users and ensures a smoother streaming experience.
• Geographic distribution of the servers: Ideally, the video streaming CDN provider should have servers scattered across the globe, particularly in regions where your target audience resides. This can ensure efficient content delivery regardless of a viewer’s location.
• Average performance of the video streaming CDN: Look for providers with a proven track record of high uptime and consistent bitrate delivery. This means minimal buffering or interruptions during playback for your viewers. 
• Video streaming features: Consider a CDN that offers features like on-the-fly video encoding and transcoding, as well as adaptive bitrate streaming, as these can improve streaming quality.

3. How do I set up a video CDN network?

Setting up a video CDN network typically involves choosing a CDN provider, signing up for their service, and uploading your video content. The CDN provider will handle the technical aspects of distributing your videos across their network.  Some CDNs even offer integration with popular online video platforms.

4. How does a CDN work for video streaming?

A CDN for live streaming works similarly to regular video streaming, but with real-time optimizations. The CDN fragments the live stream into smaller chunks, caches them on edge servers, and delivers them to viewers in real-time with minimal delay.

5. What CDN should I use for live streaming?

Several powerful CDN providers offer video-specific features and functionalities. Here are some popular choices to consider:

• Amazon’s CloudFront
• Microsoft’s Azure
• Akamai
• Cloudflare
• Fastly

6. What’s the difference between single-CDN and multi-CDN delivery?

A single-CDN setup uses one CDN provider to get your content out there. While it works for many uses, if that one CDN has a problem, your service might stop. A multi-CDN for live video setup uses two or more CDN providers at the same time. This boosts reliability (giving you a backup if one CDN struggles), making performance better by smartly sending traffic to the best CDN live. It can even help with costs and flexibility by not locking you into one vendor.

7. How does AI improve video CDN performance?

AI-powered video CDN solutions use smart learning systems to look at tons of data, like live network conditions, past traffic, and what viewers are doing. This lets an AI-powered CDN for video delivery optimization predict how traffic will flow. AI can see network jams or demand spikes coming and proactively send content through the fastest routes, adjust video quality on the fly, and fine-tune how things are saved.

8. Can a CDN help with regulatory compliance in China, Europe, and the U.S.?

For video content delivery in China, a CDN partner with an ICP license, like Dacast, is a must to keep content from being blocked or slowed down by the Great Firewall. In Europe, CDNs help with GDPR rules by handling data securely and often offer options for where data is stored. In the U.S., CDNs can help with various rules by providing secure delivery and analytics.

9. What CDN is best for 4K/low-latency live events?

Look for CDNs with a huge global PoP distribution and strong edge computing abilities to process and save content as close to the viewer as possible. Support for advanced low-latency tech like SRT and LL-HLS is also a plus. Features like AI-powered routing for picking the best path and a multi-CDN approach for guaranteed uptime and performance during big events are vital.

10. What security features should a CDN offer for video streaming?

Key features of a secure CDN include DRM support to stop unauthorized access and copying, token-based authentication to secure content access, geo-restriction to control where content can be seen, and solid DDoS mitigation to fend off cyberattacks. A TLS encryption at the edge to keep data safe as it travels from the CDN to the viewer is also a must.

11. How does a multi-CDN setup work for streaming?

A multi-CDN setup uses two or more CDN providers simultaneously. An intelligent system continuously monitors each CDN’s performance and dynamically routes viewer requests to the fastest, most reliable option in real time. This ensures maximum uptime, optimal global delivery, and smooth, buffer-free streaming, even during peak demand or outages.

Conclusion

There are many things to consider when discussing video streaming delivery. Choosing an online video platform that is known for reliable content delivery with top-tier CDN partnerships, a powerful video player, and HLS delivery is a must if you’re looking to optimize your streaming delivery.

The real differences among the various CDN providers out there, and knowing which ones matter most for professional live and on-demand streaming, can make or break your video efforts.

Using an online video platform such as Dacast is the best way to access a high-end CDN for live streaming. Dacast often offers more features and is usually more affordable than dealing directly with a CDN, all while delivering better performance.

We are committed to adding the newest CDN innovations, including our powerful partnership with Akamai and our upcoming multi-CDN platform. We always deliver your content with top quality, reliability, and security, and help you reach audiences everywhere.

If you want to see how live streaming with an online video platform paired with a powerful CDN works, we invite you to take advantage of our 14-day free trial. That way, you can test out streaming over the Akamai CDN right now.

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