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I'm curious: how do the bandwidth costs of streaming 1 video file compare with the ad revenue from said 1 video stream?

Video ads average about a half cent per view.

Display ads (google ads, for instance) average about .05 cents per view ( ie- you need 1k views to get 50 cents )

A server that comes with 100TB of bandwidth is about 200 bucks a month.

Now, is it going to be profitable? That all depends on the quality settings of the video + length + bitrate, etc..

Both video adverts and traditional banners can be a lot more expensive on that, depending on the situation. In my line of work, for example, I never see banners for less than $0.003/view, and $0.02/video advert is considered cheap.

As to whether advertising can cover streaming costs - yes it can, certainly when it comes to gaming content.

Cloudflare might be ideal for this.

Cloudflare don't cache video files, you can't use it to save bandwidth.

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