27 Sep 2026 · 5 min read
Steam has no timer for a store-page broadcast. Your page shows a broadcast for exactly as long as something is sending video to your RTMP upload URL and stream key, and not a minute longer. So scheduling a prerecorded broadcast really means scheduling whatever does the sending. There are two ways to do that, and they differ mostly in what has to stay switched on.
Steamworks lets you schedule an Event, and an event can feature a broadcast. That puts your broadcast in front of more people during the event window, but it does not start or stop any video. If nothing is pushing to your stream key when the event opens, visitors see an ordinary store page.
Valve does allow a broadcast tied to an event to keep running for up to 24 hours past the event’s listed end, so you do not have to cut the feed the second a countdown hits zero. The rest of Steam’s broadcast rules apply as usual. Either way, the sending side is yours to run.
If you just want the page live all the time, you do not need a schedule. Press Go live and leave it. Scheduling is for when the what or the when changes.
The do-it-yourself route is a machine that starts a sender at a set time. OBS has no scheduler of its own, so people either add a plugin such as Advanced Scene Switcher, or skip OBS and let the operating system’s scheduler (Task Scheduler on Windows, cron on Linux and macOS) run ffmpeg directly. A cron line like this starts a loop at 18:00 every day and stops it six hours later:
0 18 * * * timeout 6h ffmpeg -re -stream_loop -1 -i trailer.mp4 \ -c copy -f flv "rtmp://YOUR-UPLOAD-URL/YOUR-STREAM-KEY"
The -c copy only works if the file is already encoded to Steam’s spec: H.264 High@4.1, a keyframe every two seconds, constant bitrate and AAC audio. Encoding a broadcast video shows how to get it there.
It works. The catch is the one every home-run broadcast shares. The computer has to be on, awake and online at 18:00 every day. The loop does not restart itself if the connection drops. A machine that sleeps, updates or reboots overnight quietly takes your slot with it. And two videos at two different times means two entries, with nothing stopping them from overlapping.
In Loopcast a schedule belongs to a stream. Once the stream has your Steam upload URL and stream key, setting it up takes about a minute:
From then on the stream starts and stops itself. Nothing on your side has to be switched on.
A schedule decides when video is sent. It cannot make Steam accept it. The account behind the stream key has to be a non-limited Steam account with Broadcast Live permission for the app (or Store Broadcast Beta membership) and legitimate access to the game. If a block goes on air on our side and nothing appears on your store page, start with the troubleshooting guide.
Want the page live around the clock instead? Skip the schedule and press Go live. Start a stream, or see how this compares with running OBS yourself.