What are viewer hours?
To pick the right video streaming plan with IBM, you have to understand what viewer hours are.
It is a combination of two factors: how many viewers watch your stream and for how long.
Viewer hours are calculated on live, recorded (video on demand) and live playlist content. Your viewer hour total is shared by all channels you have created on your IBM Video Streaming account.
Example could be
- 1 viewer is watching your show for 1 hour = 1 viewer hour
- 100 viewers watch your show for 1 hour each = 100 viewer hours
Checking viewer hours
After signing up for a plan, you can check your viewer hour usage inside your account. This is done by going to Account and then Subscription in the menu navigation.
The Subscription menu contains a number of details related to your account, such as how many channels are currently available and usage regarding video storage. It also includes a readout of current viewer hours consumed for your contracted term. Below is an example of where this information can be found, circled in red.
It's suggested to check your viewer hours after a major event to see how much you might have used in contrast to what is available on your plan. In the event you go over, overages can be occurred.
For additional information please reference our article: What happens after I run out of my viewer hours?