They blocked third party access.. how so? Hive-Tube scrapes content off of them and 20+ other sites, without relying on their api's too (I hate paying and/or relying on third party api's). If you are getting blocked, then try Lokinet.

As for spk.network being viable, I'm sure it is for some. For us though, minio does the job just fine, along with remote transcoding. Monetizing contributors is easy too with the built-in Hive beneficiaries system that we use in Hive-Tube. Plus we syndicate to all of the Hive front-ends, Hive communities, and of course the Fediverse network (ie: https://cast.garden/about/follows), so I prefer to not reinvent the wheel, and getting a wider reach at the same time. That's why I built Hive-Tube of course.