JoostTeam

Livestation have released an app on the App Store a few days ago in partnership with Five and UEFA to allow purchasers to watch the Europa League matches shown live on Five in the UK on their iPhone/iPod touch devices.

The app retails for a one-off fee of £3.99 and it will give access to all the games up to the final on the 12 May 2010. Additionally, highlights from all the games are also made available on the app a few hours after the end of the games.

If you have iTunes installed and live in the UK, click here http://tinyurl.com/lx233z

Internet users worldwide are being offered exclusive free access to Wednesday’s live Presidential debate between incumbent Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his challenger in the forthcoming election, the last Prime Minister of Iran, Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

The live broadcast, which takes place at 19:00 GMT on Wednesday 3 June, is being broadcast on Press TV and streamed live on Livestation, the destination for live TV online.

Viewers can either watch the event on the Livestation website (http://www.livestation.com/channels/52), or, for higher quality viewing, watch it on the Livestation player which is available for free download from livestation.com. When using the player, viewers can also chat in real time as the debate continues, as well as have one click access to a wide range of global news channels.
The live Presidential debate marks the addition of Press TV to the line up of international news channels on Livestation. It will offer a different perspective on an important international news event.

In the coming days, Press TV will screen four documentaries directed by prominent Iranian directors (Majid Majidi, Javad Shamaqdari, Behrouz Afkhami, Mohammad-Ali Farsi) on each of the four presidential candidates as the country prepares for the 12 June election.

Welcoming Press TV to the Livestation line up, CEO Matteo Berlucchi, said the addition of the channel comes at an important time in Iranian history.

“Livestation is all about providing people with the widest choice of news and views, and Press TV is an excellent addition to our current line up because of the different perspective it offers to a global audience.”

For Setareh Ghane, Director of International Relations at Press TV, using a new platform to stream live to a wider global broadband audience is an important step for the new channel on the verge of its second anniversary.
“As a well-known alternative news source, Press TV is pleased to announce it will further its goals of promoting the unbiased dissemination of information through partnership with Livestation. We invite viewers an opportunity to gain an authentic experience of Iranian politics with interactive applications provided by Livestation.”

Livestation, the destination for live TV broadcasting over broadband, has widened its choice of Arabic channels with the addition of Dubai-based Al Arabiya.

The 24-hour news channel, which offers a mix of breaking news, current, documentaries and sports updates has joined Livestation’s existing line-up of Arabic news channels which already included services offered by Al Jazeera, BBC, France 24, Russia Today (Rusya Al Yaum) and Euronews.

According to Matteo Berlucchi, the CEO of Livestation, the addition of Al Arabiya as an official Livestation partner channel is part of an ongoing strategy to widen the choice of perspectives offered on the player. He said he was delighted to have reached agreement with the channel.

“The addition of Al Arabiya to Livestation will ensure that Livestation continues to offer the widest breadth of perspectives and choice for the Arab speaking TV-over-broadband audience,” he commented.

And Berlucchi says Livestation’s strategy of offering the widest variety of viewing destinations resonates with the rapidly-growing Livestation audience.

“We have found, when we analyse the viewing patterns on the Livestation player, that the broadband audience is both loyal and fickle. They are loyal to their favoured news provider, returning to the channel several times a day and, on average, spending half an hour with their preferred news offering each visit. However, when a big story breaks, they tend to exercise the choice Livestation offers by clicking through to adjacent channels on the player”.

“Viewers are also using the live, real-time chat associated with each channel as they channel hop and channel chat at the same time. It is a new and exciting phenomenon and the detailed user statistics are helping us map viewer behaviour in ways that have previously not been available to broadcasters. Al Arabiya, as do all our partner channels, will now benefit from this audience information enabling them to target and develop their service in response to actual viewer behaviour patterns,” he said.

A new initiative has been launched by Livestation, the destination for live TV online designed to help large-scale charity appeals to broadcast their calls for donations to a global audience during times of crisis and emergency. The channel will feature a line up of the current crisis appeals and will be available free of charge to all major charity organisations when required. The aim is to increase the visibility of charity appeals as much as possible through the use of Livestation’s broadcast technology over broadband.

The first appeal being screened is by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) for aid for those who have been injured and lost their homes in Gaza.

According to the DEC, thousands are now struggling to survive with limited food, fresh drinking water and medicines.

The call for help, which is now running a the new Live Appeals channel on Livestation, is asking for donations of £25 for warm blankets or £50 for a food parcel, which DEC says will last a family for a month.

You can find more about the Gaza appeal by visiting the DEC site and you can watch the Live Appeal channel now, on Livestation, by going to our new appeals channel.

Charities are invited to approach Livestation to use this facility, which will be offered free-of-charge as part of Livestation’s contribution to the cause being promoted.

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• BBC and the Gaza appeal (bbc.co.uk)

As you know I am currently testing an alpha copy of Livestation for the iPhone. I can tell you that so far I am pretty happy with it and and that it will be a keeper!

Why will I keep this one application and why did I got rid of joost iPhone app? Because it make me smarter and Joost… well! How come may you ask… because I can now watch various news channels live as I ride the bus to and from work every day. This is about 1.5 hours I can spend educating myself about what is going on in the world while sitting on the bus bench.

And because there are many news channel I can watch various perspectives on things… like from Russia, France, UK, etc.

I wish more channels would be available, news channels from Canada in french for example… but those will certainly come if Livestation becomes a popular iPhone application.

Did I mentioned that I am watching Livestation over 3G while moving down the street on the bus with almost perfect reception? Yep! Good thing I took the 6GB plan from Rogers because at 100MB an hour I could be in for a major hurtal!

Livestation are cautious to tell you that you are about to consume a lot of bandwidth when they sens that you are running over a 3G network connection. This is very sensible of them.

The application still need some work before being ready fro prime time. Livestation is also working on different way of encoding the video stream… so some will play beautifully over 3G and others will look like digested dog food!

So am I pleased with the application? You bet! I bet it will have a huge success. I really wish Livestation network will be up to the task awaiting because it will be a flood gate of bits flowing out from it to thos iPhones. Their desktop application was popular but this will be at least 20 times more popular… and I am sure it will be more like 100 times more popular very soon.

Given the difficult economics one can ask how will they survive this huge bandwidth usage given very low publicity revenue…

I really hope they have the solution!

Livestation has been busy working on an iPhone/iPod Touch application that will let you watch live TV on your device over WiFi network connections.

The new application is not yet available but will be demonstrated live on Livestation on Thursday 04 December at 5pm GMT and will be available on a Livestation special channel both on our website, and in the player (the channel will be called iPhone Preview).

Visit the chat room in the player during the broadcast and ask Matteo questions, a selection of which will be read out live on-air. If you can’t wait until Thursday, here is an exclusive preview:

You can keep up to date with the development by chacking www.livestation.com/iphone.

I suspect many more internet based solutions like Livestation, Hulu, Sling will soon announce coming application for the Apple iPhone platform. This platform is king in the mobile data access space and no one should ignore it at the cost of being left behind.

You may recall that Joost recently announced their player for the iPhone and now everyone will be scrambling to get theirs out the gate to not give them too much of an edge.

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• Joost gets back on our radar with iPhone app

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Livestation, the destination for high quality live TV and radio online, has stepped in to support the Indian news channel, CNN IBN, cope with the sudden global demand for live streaming as the crisis in Mumbai unfolds.

The CNN IBN website has been hit by increased traffic with people eager for the latest information on the bombings, shootings and on-going siege.

Livestation offered to distribute the CNN IBN signal in high-quality and stream it globally without charge in order to ensure that the flow of information was not restricted and uninterrupted.

Roshan Tamang, Vice-President & Editor, Web Operations at CNN-IBN commented, “It’s been a pleasure co-operating with Livestation in order to meet the massive demand for the live CNN-IBN coverage.”

Matteo Berlucchi, CEO of Livestation said the demand for the CNN IBN feed shows that a growing number of people are turning to the streaming of live TV news over broadband to find more in-depth coverage and perspective.

“Our weekly statistics show that more and more people are expecting to view live TV coverage on their desktops. Livestation is keen to work in partnership with broadcasters to make this happen. We are delighted that CNN IBN responded so promptly to our offer. The channel was live on Livestation in less than an hour.”

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• CNN IBN Live Streaming from Mumbai

On election night, as many international broadcasters staged 12-hour US election specials, Al Jazeera English reached a new dimension in TV broadcasting by pioneering the use of instant, live chat as an integral part of the channels live output.

The channel was being streamed over broadband via Livestation, the destination for live broadcasting online.

At one point, more than 100 people were in the global chat room attached to the live stream of Al Jazeera English; numbers boosted every time the channel gave an on-air promotion.

Their comments fed through to the live TV output at Al Jazeera studios in Washington and Doha. Some of the comments from the Livestation chat can be seen on Al Jazeera’s website

According to Russell Merryman, Head of New Media at Al Jazeera English, the Livestation tools enabled the channel to reach out to a global audience and to enhance its output with multiple perspectives.

“It introduces a fresh dynamic to interactive news coverage. It’s about engaging with viewers in new ways, being where they are and delivering news in a way the viewers want to receive it. Our partnership with Livestation has furnished us with the tools to make this happen.” Russell Merryman, Head of New Media, Al Jazeera English.

Livestation viewers impact the Riz Khan show
The Riz Khan show on Al Jazeera English, which goes out Monday to Thursday at 20:30 GMT is now using the Livestation live chat tool on a daily basis and will take this one step further on Thursday 06 November when show presenter, Riz Khan, joins online viewers in the chat room immediately after the programme.

“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.

Livestation can be enjoyed on the web at www.livestation.com and on the desktop after a free and simple download.

I spent last night watching the US Election live. This is something I almost never do. No, not watching elections… watching live TV. In this era of DVR only my mother in law still watch live TV anymore… right?

But since I started using Livestation I have discovered that watching live TV make sense and can be fun again. Not just simply watching TV live… but actively participating in the live TV content. Let me explain:

1. You install Livestation on your Mac, Windows PC or Linux based system.
2. You login and start watching a channel… let say Aljazera.
3. You go in the channel chat room and start reading people comments about the show playing live.
4. The host of the show happen to also use Livestation at that moment and yes… he also read and write in the chat room.
5. You write something and, to your surprise, the live TV show host pick up what you just wrote in the chat room and start speaking to that live.
6. You submit a URL in the chat room demonstrating what you just stated and the show host go to the web site, look at it and decide to show what he see live on the show.

This is no longer passive TV… you are now influencing what is going on live via the chat room. Other chat room participants can reply, influence, argument with you or the host. It is sometime chaotic, fun to watch.

Livestation is hard working on improving the chat system to make it more suitable to live TV interaction. They recently added a live voting option to their prerelease client that allow show host to poll Livestation viewers for their opinion on a given subject, great idea!

Livestation has finally been able to make the link between Live TV and the web… something that no one else has successfully done before. I hope more live TV content provider start to get the clue and jump on the Livestation wagon.

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. Read more…