HLS Streaming CDN
Deliver pre-encoded live and VOD streams with 1-4 second latency. Standard HLS keeps viewers 20-40 seconds behind the action. The BlazingCDN LL-HLS pipeline, with partial segments, blocking playlists and preload hints, brings that down to the 1-4 second range.
From $5/TB down to $2.50/TB at volume · 14-day testing period on real traffic · $25 monthly minimum waived · Engineer reply within 3 business hours
Built for live-first teams
Live sports & events
Burst absorption for goal-moment concurrency spikes; pre-event cache warming for manifests and opening segments.
Live channels & broadcasters
Protocol-aware caching across mixed live + VOD catalogs.
E-learning & corporate live
Predictable delivery for scheduled high-concurrency sessions, with signed-URL protection for paid streams.
You bring the stream. We deliver it.
BlazingCDN is a delivery layer, not a processing layer. To use HLS Streaming CDN you need your own media server, encoder, or packager producing HLS/DASH output. We do not transcode, re-package, or generate manifests, and that is exactly why nothing we do can break your encoding pipeline.
Setup: create a zone, point it at your packager’s output, put the CDN hostname in your player config. Test on a temporary hostname before switching DNS.
Watch a real HLS stream come through the Anycast edge
Served fromFour renditions, one manifest
Segments, not files
Try it in your own player
https://cdn84906683.blazingcdn.net/boxing/hls/master.m3u8 · Segments: 4 s · Footage: Pixabay, free licence 
From 20 to 40 seconds behind live, down to 1-4 s
- Partial segments served from edge as they are produced, before the full segment closes
- Blocking playlist requests, so players get manifest updates the moment they exist, without polling
- Preload hints so the player fetches the next part ahead of need
- Part-level caching at the edge, so concurrent viewers in one region share the same delivery
- All ABR renditions pre-cached, keeping bitrate switching stable when concurrency doubles mid-match
Numbers, then price
Measured on our own edge across production deployments. Your end-to-end figure also depends on your encoder and packager, which we do not touch.
1-4 s
Latency our delivery layer adds on an LL-HLS pipeline, measured from our edge. Standard HLS delivery sits at 20 to 40 s.
97%+
Segment cache hit sustained on VOD libraries. Live manifests have a different profile: ask us for live figures on your setup.
96%+
Average cache hit rate across the network
What 100 TB of streaming costs
First 5 TB
- $25 for the whole tier
- This is also the monthly minimum
5 to 25 TB
- $90 for the next 20 TB
- 25 TB in total: about $115
25 to 100 TB
- $300 for the next 75 TB
- 100 TB in total: about $415
Protocol-aware caching, not generic file delivery
HLS and DASH break a stream into a manifest and segments, and those need opposite cache treatment. BlazingCDN applies it automatically:
- Live manifests: near-zero TTL, so players always see the freshest playlist
- VOD manifests: longer TTL for stable catalogs
- Segments: cached as immutable and served from the edge with a stable cadence, which keeps ABR from oscillating
- DRM-encrypted segments: delivered and cached encrypted; key delivery and licensing stay on your side
- Origin shield and request coalescing: thousands of concurrent misses collapse into a single upstream request, protecting your packager during live peaks
Test CDN Speed Across Top Regions
Avg. Download Speed
Latency
Test link
Anycast CDN
Video CDN | VOD
HLS Streaming CDN
Three live deployments, written up in full
Live sports, kickoff spikes
Concurrency triples in minutes and every buffering second lands on an ad break. The write-up covers how the edge absorbed the surge and what it did to ad delivery during the monetised moments. Read the case →
Live sports, playback latency
Viewers were finding out the score from social feeds before the picture arrived, and adaptive bitrate kept oscillating. This one is about latency and rendition stability on a live pipeline. Read the case →
OTT provider, multi-region
Playback quality drifted between regions and buffering followed the time zone. The case covers what changed once the same content was answered from every region equally. Read the case →
Questions buyers ask about the HLS Streaming CDN
The BlazingCDN HLS Streaming CDN delivers pre-encoded live and VOD streams in HLS and DASH, including LL-HLS with partial segments, blocking playlist requests and preload hints. Delivery runs on the Anycast CDN at $5 down to $2.50 per TB (as of October 2026). Encoding, packaging and manifest generation stay with your own media server.
How much does live streaming delivery cost for 50 TB a month?
BlazingCDN bills 50 TB of live HLS delivery at $215 a month (as of October 2026), the same rate for viewers in the US, Europe and Asia. The first 5 TB cost $25 in total, the next 20 TB bill at $4.50 per TB, and the last 25 TB bill at $4.00 per TB.
For example, a 5 Mbps stream uses about 2.25 GB per viewer hour. So 50 TB covers roughly 22,000 viewer hours at that bitrate. Concurrency spikes at kickoff do not change the price, because BlazingCDN bills terabytes delivered and never requests or peak bandwidth. Manifest polling by thousands of players adds no request fee. At 100 TB a month the total is $415 per month, and enterprise terms start at that level. No setup fee applies, and no long-term contract is required.
How does BlazingCDN cache HLS manifests and segments differently?
BlazingCDN applies protocol-aware caching to HLS and DASH: live manifests get a near-zero TTL, while segments are cached as immutable. Players therefore always see the freshest playlist, and segments leave the edge at a steady cadence. VOD manifests receive a longer TTL because stable catalogs change rarely.
For LL-HLS, partial segments are served from the edge as they are produced, before the full segment closes. Blocking playlist requests deliver manifest updates without polling, and preload hints let the player fetch the next part early. All ABR renditions are cached, which keeps bitrate switching stable when concurrency doubles. Origin shield and request coalescing collapse thousands of concurrent misses into a single upstream request, which protects the packager during a live peak. DRM-encrypted segments are cached and delivered encrypted. The network average cache hit ratio is 96%+.
Does BlazingCDN transcode or package live streams?
No, BlazingCDN does not transcode, re-package or generate manifests, because the HLS Streaming CDN is a delivery layer only. A live setup therefore needs its own media server, encoder or packager producing HLS or DASH output. For example, an encoder feeding a self-run packager works, while a raw contribution feed sent straight to the CDN does not.
The upside is that nothing on the CDN side can break the encoding pipeline. Bitrates, ladder design and segment duration stay under the team’s control. DRM licensing and key delivery also stay on the customer side, while encrypted segments pass through untouched. BlazingCDN suits teams that already run an encoder and want to cut delivery cost, which starts at $5 per TB (as of October 2026). Teams without any encoding stack should pick a full video platform instead, or add an encoder before choosing a CDN.
How do I switch a live stream to BlazingCDN before an event?
BlazingCDN setup for a live stream takes three changes: create a zone, point the zone at the packager output, and put the CDN hostname in the player config. Onboarding with an engineer takes about one hour. A temporary hostname lets the team test real playback before any DNS switch.
Before a scheduled event, manifests and opening segments can be warmed in the cache, so the first viewers do not all hit the origin. For example, a match starting at 20:00 can be warmed shortly before kickoff through the REST API. BlazingCDN can also run as a second CDN behind DNS with a weighted traffic split, which lets one channel or one region move first. The 14-day testing period runs on real production traffic after a KYC check. Support is 24/7, and an engineer replies within 3 business hours.
Can BlazingCDN protect paid live streams from restreaming?
BlazingCDN protects paid streams with signed URLs that expire on schedule and can be bound to one viewer IP, with a limit of 1 to 5 unique IPs per link. Security tokens add per-request access control for manifests and segments. Cookie checks and partial path signing cover player sessions, so one signature can authorize every segment under a path.
Referrer and user-agent filters cut off hotlinking from unauthorized players. Country and IP allow or block lists restrict playback to licensed territories, for example a sports rights deal limited to Europe. DRM-encrypted streams are delivered as they are, and licensing stays in the customer’s own stack. All controls come on every plan at the same $5 to $2.50 per TB rate (as of October 2026). BlazingCDN provides access control, not a security suite, so attack mitigation stays with a separate vendor.