Microsoft does P2P TV with Skinkers
Skinkers, a Cambridge, UK-based startup, has developed a P2P software that can allow you to watch live television. The service, which seems to be consumer focused, is clearly an attempt to lure large media companies to offer live streams of their content. The startup’s platform is based on technology developed by Microsoft’s Cambridge Research Center, which makes Microsoft an equity holder in this company.
The P2P TV client promoted by Microsoft is called LiveStation is based on Microsoft Silverlight, and from what we can gather is that it is unlikely to work on Macs for now. “The video is like watching a DVD on your PC…no jerky motion, no buffering…it is just like watching live TV,” writes Don Dodge, who works for Microsoft.
Others are talking about this as a Joost killer, or a Slingbox killer or whatever: typical friday morning hyperbole about an offering that seems interesting, but that’s about all for now.
It is not the first company to offer live television over P2P – Rawflow, another British company also has a similar offering. MediaZone, and Zattoo are two companies we have profiled in the past.
We have applied for the beta, and are waiting for the application to be approved.
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[...] of the reasons my ex-colleague Business 2.0’s Erick Schonfeld is bemused by all the fuss over LiveStation, the P2P TV offering from Skinkers/Microsoft. On the Internet, does live TV even matter any more?…The Internet is the ultimate on-demand [...]
NewTeeVee Do we really need Live TV on the Net? « on July 8th, 2007 at 11:00 pm - Permalink
Have I got this right? Their big point of difference over Joost is that it is live TV? Why would I want to watch live TV again anywhere, especially on my computer? Once you have a PVR/Tivo, you almost never watch live broadcast. I think they have made a major error in judgment on what consumers actually want.
Jon Beattie on July 9th, 2007 at 12:19 pm - Permalink
[...] Ready With LiveStation Skinkers, a Cambridge, UK-based start-up, was in the news recently for its P2P software that allowed you to watch live television. The software was based on Microsoft’s technology, [...]
Microsoft, Skinkers Ready With LiveStation « NewTeeVee on September 7th, 2007 at 8:30 am - Permalink
[...] promising to send out invites to anyone who signs up. Livestation is a P2P live-streaming client based on technology developed at Microsoft Research. The focus of the product hasn’t really been clear until now, but Skinkers CEO Matteo [...]
Livestation Opens Up Beta Test, Focuses on News « NewTeeVee on February 11th, 2008 at 12:52 pm - Permalink