Reddit’s live video streaming feature launched in 2019 was called RPAN, short for Reddit Public Access Network. Reddit announced it on August 19, 2019, as a limited-time experiment that let selected users broadcast live video from the platform.
The first test ran for five days, with scheduled broadcast hours and a limited number of streaming slots. Viewers could browse broadcasts, vote on them, chat, and use Reddit’s award system. The design emphasized discovering interesting broadcasts through Reddit’s voting and browsing systems rather than relying only on established celebrity streamers or follower counts.
RPAN later expanded into a network of dedicated subreddits and supported longer broadcasts. Reddit released RPAN Studio for desktop broadcasting in July 2020, building it on the open-source OBS software. Although RPAN became a recognizable part of Reddit’s video ecosystem, the service was officially discontinued on November 15, 2022. It is commonly confused with Reddit Live, an earlier feature associated with live text updates.