Livestation Recent News

Grab your broadband ringside seat to the US Election with Livestation

Thu Oct 30 11:54:46 UTC 2008

As the race for the White House reaches its climax, Livestation is offering a unique, interactive experience.

With some of the best global news channels available in one place, Livestation viewers can benefit from a wide choice of coverage, multiple perspectives and the chance to use the Livestation chat functionality to influence how live, on-air programmes develop.

"I will be eagerly watching Livestation to see how the world watches the election of the century." Chris Cramer, Global Editor, Multimedia, Reuters News.

During the election, Livestation viewers will be able to watch the action live, on their desktops, anywhere in the world, and chat in real time with other viewers as well as journalists and producers from our partner channels such as Riz Khan of Al Jazeera. Most of our partners are planning 12-hour TV specials, offering news, analysis and studio discussions as events unfold. Here are some of the highlights of the coverage on election night.

Al Jazeera English is again particularly keen to gauge the mood of a global audience. As the drama of the election night unfolds, producers from Al Jazeera will be in the Livestation chat room gathering online reactions and feeding them directly back to the studio to be read out on air.

BBC World News David Dimbleby, one of the BBC's most experienced presenters will be hosting an election special along with Matt Frei, anchor of BBC World News America. They'll be joined in the studio by veteran newsman Ted Koppel for big picture perspective and global analysis.

euronews says it will be assessing the impact of the election from a European perspective and analysing how the outcome may influence the future relationship between Europe and America. The euronews coverage will be streamed in seven languages on Livestation.

France 24 has set up studios at the foot of the Trocadéro, where the largest American election evening outside the United States is being organized by Republicans & Democrats Abroad.

C-SPAN coverage will start at 14.00 GMT with an in-depth look at how the 2008 elections will impact the next Congress. C-SPAN will be taking the feeds from both campaigns' HQs from Chicago and Phoenix. This will most likely be interspersed with behind-the-scenes coverage, a studio host with guests and viewer calls.

The interactive part of the Livestation service is frequently being used by our partners to gauge the views of a global audience. Riz Khan uses the chat room during his show on Al Jazeera. "Interactivity is a key element of my show and we are finding more and more people want to take part by getting questions or comments to the guests that they see. Livestation is a perfect platform for this, it's very simple to use and allows our viewers to immediately comment about what is being said by the guests" he said.

Al Jazeera have hosted discussions during all the presidential debates, feeding comments directly from the Livestation chat room to the studio and adding them to the live, on screen TV output. Their senior Washington correspondent, Rob Reynolds, hosted a lively debate about the US election; you can read the (interesting) (shortened) transcript on our blog.

ITN On joins Livestation’s partner channel line up

Fri Oct 17 07:33:29 UTC 2008

News, including sports and entertainment top stories available to anyone with a broadband connection

ITN On one of the world’s leading producers of news and entertainment content for multimedia platforms joined Livestation today.

Livestation viewers can now access ITN On’s made-for-broadband 24 hour channel, the only channel of its kind in the UK. Users can catch the latest national and international news as a well as showbiz and sports content.

Nicholas Wheeler Managing Director, ITN On said: “As a platform focussed on news, it makes sense for ITN On to stream our channel on Livestation. It offers us a great opportunity to expand our business and brand globally. We also believe users will see the real benefit in viewing a made-for-broadband news channel over linear TV models online.”

ITN On joins a growing list of Livestation partners who include Al Jazeera, BBC, Bloomberg, C-SPAN, Deutsche Welle, euronews, France 24 and Russia Today.

“ITN On is a perfect partner for Livestation, with its continually updated news summaries and top sports, entertainment and business news. It's an ideal addition for the growing choice of news perspectives offered via Livestation. We've particularly enjoyed working in partnership with the team at ITN On to make this happen and are confident that Livestation viewers will value our latest addition.” Matteo Berlucchi, CEO, Livestation

About ITN On
ITN On is part of ITN, one of the world’s leading news and multimedia content companies. ITN On is the UK’s leading supplier of news and other video entertainment content to broadband, mobile and radio platforms. ITN On pioneered video news on mobile in Europe, launching with 3 and was the first UK company to create made-for-mobile news and weather channels. ITN On’s key business partners include, Vodafone, 3, Orange and T-Mobile as well as established online operators including Yahoo!, MSN, Telegraph Media Group, Bebo, YouTube and blinkx. ITN On’s radio division IRN supplies news to over 250 commercial radio stations throughout the UK with a combined daily audience of 24 million. www.itn.co.uk

Livestation adds seven partner channels

Fri Oct 03 13:28:50 UTC 2008

BBC Arabic and Rusya Al Yaum (Russia Today Arabic) among the new channels

Livestation has added seven new partner channels to its live, interactive online TV service:

Livestation works together with its partner channels to explore the potential of live TV online by offering new interactive features, driving traffic back to the broadcasters' sites and examining viewer behaviour in order to respond positively to new interactive broadcasting opportunities. In that spirit, Livestation and Al Jazeera English recently co-hosted live, instant chat room discussions during the presidential and vice-presidential candidate debates.

Livestation partners now include Al Jazeera English, BBC Arabic, BBC World News and BBC World Service radio, Bloomberg Television, C-SPAN, Deutsche Welle TV and radio, euronews (English, French, Italian, German, Russian, Arabic and Spanish), France 24 (English and Arabic) and Russia Today (English and Arabic).

Livestation is the new, interactive way to enjoy high-quality live TV and radio channels, on the desktop via a broadband connection. The Livestation player is being continually developed and updated to integrate with the latest and most popular social networking trends, offering users the ability to share, chat, and take control of their viewing experience. In addition to the partner channels, Livestation viewers can also search more than a 1200 viewer-added channels which have already been bookmarked by other viewers more than 750,000 times.

C-SPAN joins Livestation as a partner channel

Wed Oct 01 08:54:12 UTC 2008

High quality C-SPAN stream now available to anyone outside the US with a broadband connection.

C-SPAN, the US cable TV network dedicated to airing non-stop coverage of government proceedings and public affairs programming, today joined Livestation as a partner channel. The C-SPAN channel will be available to anyone outside the US.

C-SPAN becomes the tenth partner channel to join Livestation, the destination for live TV and radio over broadband. Other partners include Al Jazeera, Bloomberg Television, Deutsche Welle TV and radio, euronews, France 24, Russia Today, BBC World News and BBC World Service radio.

C-SPAN President, Rob Kennedy commented "C-SPAN is pleased to announce its partnership with Livestation to make the network's telecasts available outside the United States. With so much interest in this year's election, both in America and abroad, our partnership with Livestation allows the network to expand its mission of educating the public on the American political process. International viewers will now have the opportunity to watch the American democratic process unfold, uninterrupted and unfiltered, allowing viewers to form their own opinions on the issues being debated in the United States."

Matteo Berlucchi, Livestation CEO said he was delighted to partner with C-SPAN, helping them deliver on their mission of giving public access to the US political process, “US citizens outside of the US can now access high quality C-SPAN programming via the Livestation player, additionally C-SPAN content now sits alongside other global perspectives, which will potentially attract new audiences while also driving traffic to their website.”

Berlucchi went on to say “I think with the US elections coming up, C-SPAN coverage is going to prove hugely popular with our audience, who we know like to have access to multiple global perspectives. We are looking forward to analysing the viewer statistics for the C-SPAN channel and helping them to understand their audience even better.”

About C-SPAN

C-SPAN is a private, non-profit company, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a public service. Our mission is to provide public access to the political process. C-SPAN receives no government funding; operations are funded by fees paid by cable and satellite affiliates who carry C-SPAN programming. www.c-span.org

Livestation releases the first user-generated rating & alert system

Tue Sep 23 18:32:13 UTC 2008

New, cross-platform player (Windows, Linux and Mac) allows viewers to discover and be alerted to live content that other viewers think is important.

Livestation, the new, interactive way to enjoy live TV and radio over broadband, has introduced the first user-generated rating and alert system, offering its audience far greater control and choice.

When a Livestation viewer or listener sees or hears something interesting being broadcast on the player, they can hit the What’s Hot button and buzz their comments. If others are buzzing about the same content, the rankings for that channel will rise to the top of the What’s Hot list, enabling everyone to see what is popular and, if they like it, to tune in. Once they have selected the channel they will also be able to chat in real time with others who have created or followed the What's Hot buzz.

What’s Hot desktop alerts will be added soon so that Livestation users can keep up-to-date about topics they are following.

Also launched today is a breaking news alerting system allowing Livestation's viewers and listeners to receive desktop alerts from their favourite channels even when they are not watching.

New features for Windows and Linux

Livestation recently released a Mac player with some new features; this proved extremely popular, being listed as one of the top downloads on www.apple.com/download and featured in a number of publications.

New features, which are today being introduced to the Windows and Linux versions, include:

An easy to navigate visual carousel, offering seamless, one-click channel selection.
A search and add feature, which enables viewers to access more than a thousand viewer-added web channels, directly from the player.
A chat function, allowing viewers to interact with others while watching Livestation.

Livestation channels: Livestation viewers can access partner channels in high quality, these include Al Jazeera English, BBC World News, Bloomberg Television, Deutsche Welle, euronews (English, French, Italian and Spanish), France 24 in French and English, Russia Today, BBC World Service radio and Deutsche Welle radio in German and English. Viewers can also search more than a thousand viewer-added channels which have already been bookmarked by other viewers more than 500,000 times.

Livestation partners Deutsche Welle

Wed Sep 10 10:28:52 UTC 2008

Deutsche Welle can now be enjoyed by anyone in the world with a high quality broadband connection.

Livestation, the company that streams live TV over broadband, has teamed up with the German broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, to carry its TV and radio offerings.

Germany’s international broadcaster becomes the ninth partner channel to join Livestation and is now a channel choice alongside BBC World, EuroNews (English, French, German and Italian), France 24 (French and English), Bloomberg, Al Jazeera and Russia Today.

According to Holger Hank, Head of the New Media Division at Deutsche Welle: “More and more viewers are expecting excellent quality and high resolution when they are watching Internet television online. That’s why we are delighted to offer DW-TV on Livestation. We know that more and more of Deutsche Welle's viewers are switching to the Internet.”

Livestation's CEO, Matteo Berlucchi, said the addition of Deutsche Welle brings a fresh and relevant perspective to the channel choices offered on the player. “We are delighted to have such a globally recognised brand join us as a partner channel. Livestation is all about choice, and having Deutsche Welle offering a German, European perspective on world news is extremely important to us. We have found, from looking at our statistics, that Livestation viewers like to compare and contrast the way the big players treat news. This ability to have so many perspectives all in one place is a Livestation strength.”

Deutsche Welle
The Deutsche Welle channel is viewed by 22 million people worldwide as part of the organisation's mission to “promote understanding of Germany as an independent nation with its roots in European culture, and as a liberal, democratic, constitutional state based on the rule of law.”

Livestation launch PowerPC Mac player

Tue Sep 09 17:36:16 UTC 2008

After lots of requests from our viewers, we have launched the PPC Mac version. It can be downloaded from here

The Intel version has proved extremely popular. Soon after launch it became the most popular download on www.apple.com, it is still there in fifth place. At one point we were experiencing 30 downloads a minute for the Intel Mac Player.

New features for the Mac player include (coming soon to Windows and Linux):
- An easy to navigate visual carousel, offering seamless, one-click channel selection.
- A search and add feature, which enables viewers to access more than 600+ viewer-added web channels, directly from the player.
- A chat function, allowing viewers to interact with others while watching Livestation.

Read the full mac news release

Livestation launches Mac player

Wed Aug 27 08:47:26 UTC 2008

A Mac version of the award winning Livestation player is now available to download free of charge, from the Livestation website

Livestation’s high-quality, live TV on Internet service enables viewers to watch free TV online. It works in partnership with some of the world's leading broadcasters, including Al Jazeera, BBC World News, Bloomberg Television, EuroNews (English, French, Italian and now Spanish), France 24, i>Tele, Russia Today and BBC World Service.

Based on a revolutionary software technology, co-developed with Microsoft Research, Livestation offers one of the most scalable and reliable online watching experiences, combined with engaging interactive social networking features. The platform also allows viewers to add web streams to their players and search the 600+ channels already added by other viewers.

New features for the Mac player include:
- An easy to navigate visual carousel, offering seamless, one-click channel selection.
- A search and add feature, which enables viewers to access more than 600+ viewer-added web channels, directly from the player.
- A chat function, allowing viewers to interact with others while watching Livestation.

All the features above will be available in the Windows version soon.

Matteo Berlucchi, CEO of Livestation, said the new Mac player represents a significant step forward in the Livestation strategy.

“Adding web streams directly from the player and chatting about important topics while watching live channels are the first steps towards an interactive next generation streaming online service. As our Mac viewers had to wait longer to be able to enjoy Livestation, we felt they should be rewarded by being the first to try some of the exciting features we are adding to the Livestation experience. We have more enhancements planned and they will be released on all platforms over the coming weeks”, he said.

Georgia crisis sees surge in demand for live TV over broadband

Wed Aug 20 15:15:45 UTC 2008

Viewing figures for Russia Today's live streaming service have increased ten fold during the two weeks of fighting in South Ossetia.

Viewers spent an average of 25 minutes a visit watching Russia Today's live coverage unfold on the Livestation service.

Viewing for all the Livestation live channels, which include BBC World, Al Jazeera English, Euronews and France 24 increased significantly during the two weeks, but Russia Today's figures significantly outstripped the rest.

According to Livestation CEO, Matteo Berlucchi, the figures suggest a change in viewer behaviour.

“It is becoming clearer by the day that Internet users are increasingly turning to online live broadcasts as their first port of call when looking at important news stories developing around the world.”

He says the simplicity of consuming live TV online has removed some of the main barriers to following live news events.

“With no need for satellite dishes pointing in the right direction, set-top-boxes, smart cards and expensive subscriptions, people can now watch what matters most to them on their computers anywhere in the world.”

“Add to that, the choice of channels, available at the click of a mouse, means that viewers watching live TV over the Internet can benefit from the different perspectives offered by the leading broadcasters.”

“Being able to access different versions of important stories quickly and easily is an invaluable asset for all who really care about the credibility of what are being told”, he said.

Livestation opens the floodgate to broadband TV viewing

Fri Jul 25 09:25:11 UTC 2008

Livestation, the interactive broadcast platform that delivers high-quality live TV over broadband, opened the floodgates last week when it enabled viewers to add links to their own favourite channels.

Since then viewer-added channels have been added at the rate of 50 a day, and the trend shows no sign of slowing down.

Livestation, which has an official line up of leading global news channels offered in high quality with full interactive links back to the broadcaster's sites, decided to add the new feature in response to viewer demand.

More than 400 channel links to TV, radio and webcam feeds were added by viewers within the first few days. Any publicly-available stream can now be added to the player for personal use only.

Viewers have been using the Livestation website to share, rate and talk about the channels they have added links to. As a result, some of the more popular added channels have been bookmarked more than 30,000 times as other viewers add them to their personal playlists.

According to Livestation's CEO, Matteo Berlucchi, the popularity of the feature indicates the growing demand for live TV over the Internet. He says the new feature is offering a fascinating insight into the potential of that proposition.

"We knew from the feedback we'd received from our Livestation viewers that they wanted more choice. 30,000 bookmarks of the 400 plus viewer-added channels in less than one week has confirmed that demand. As we work in partnership with the broadcasters, we are committed to passing on that information in order to encourage them to join our official line up and meet that viewer demand," he said.

Berlucchi says Livestation's aim is to release the potential of live TV over broadband.

"Some broadcasters have been quick to take up the offer of being on Livestation and have benefited in terms of increased audience and traffic driven back to their sites, others appear more wary and are missing out on what is an exciting opportunity --- it's an opportunity that Livestation is exploring on behalf of both broadcasters and viewers," he said.

Livestation is offering free distribution to the first 20 channels to join its platform and aims to launch publicly in the autumn. However, the player can currently be downloaded from the Livestation site with fresh releases being offered as the product develops. A cross-platform release is being tested by a number of viewers and is due out within days. It will ensure that PC, Mac and Linux users can all benefit from the Livestation viewing experience.