LiveStation

Livestation was a platform for distributing live television and radio broadcasts over a data network.[2] It was originally developed by Skinkers Ltd. and is now an independent company called Livestation Ltd. The service was originally based on peer-to-peer technology acquired from Microsoft Research.[3] Between mid-June 2013 and mid-July Livestation was unavailable to some subscribers due to technical issues.

LiveStation Ltd.
Logo (2010 - 2015)
Screenshot
Available inEnglish
FoundedSeptember 7, 2007 (2007-09-07)
HeadquartersThe Trampery
13-19 Bevenden Street
London, United Kingdom
Area servedWorldwide (except blocked countries)
ChairmanPhilip Rowley
CEOLippe Oosterhof
ServicesInternet TV
ProfitUS$3 million (2015) [1]
Employees10
ParentMicrosoft Research
URLwww.livestation.com
AdvertisingNo
RegistrationMandatory (sign up / sign in via Facebook or Twitter); as of early-2015
LaunchedSeptember 24, 2008 (2008-09-24)
Current statusDefunct (as of 23 November 2016)
Developer(s)Skinkers Ltd
Microsoft Research
Livestation Ltd
Initial releaseJuly 2007 (announced)
September 7, 2007 (IBC 2007 - Amsterdam)
February 12, 2008 (beta release)
September 24, 2008 (full release)
Platformcross-platform including iOS, Android Former: Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, Linux
Available inEnglish
TypeInternet TV
LicenseProprietary
Websitewww.livestation.com

In late 2016, the service closed down without notice.[4]

Overview

Livestation aggregated international news channels online and offered them in a number of ways:

  • Free to watch: a number of channels could be watched for free on the Livestation website or on their desktop player, a freely downloadable video application that presented all the channels through one interface.
  • Premium service: some of the free channels were also available on a subscription basis both in higher quality (800kbit/s) and in lower (256kbit/s) delivered via an international content distribution network for higher reliability.
  • Mobile: Livestation launched BBC World News on the iPhone in 16 European countries and Al Jazeera English globally. The apps were available in the iPhone AppStore and stream the live TV channel 24/7 on both Wi-Fi and 3G connections.

Livestation broadcast streams encoded in VC-1 format (Livestation is not currently using peer-to-peer). Playback controls were overlaid on top of the video stream. Unlike services such as Joost which offer video on demand channels, Livestation streams live broadcasts.[5]

Livestation provided a website, mobile website and native applications for iOS, Android, Nokia and Blackberry handsets. Early models of Samsung TV were also supported. They also provided desktop software available for Windows, Mac (including PowerPC) and Linux. The cross-platform compatibility of the desktop software was facilitated by the Qt framework. Social networking features were later added that include the ability to chat with other viewers and also find out what others are watching through a user generated rating system. You could search and select the available channels either from the website, or from within the software.

In the first quarter of 2011 by 1047 percent, resulting in the first profitable quarter in its history.[6]

Between mid-June and mid-July 2013, Livestation suffered a prolonged series of technical issues and was unavailable to some users.

In early 2015, Livestation re-branded their entire site changing what channels were offered and bringing in an interactive feature. Some stations on the app were not on the mainsite and vice versa.

Available channels

Stations available until closure and former live TV news channels in the global offering (which comes with a default installation) included,[7] as of 2016:

As of 2016, the Livestation site is closed.

See also

References
  1. "Busker Jobs, Reviews & Salaries".
  2. "Live television and radio". Archived from the original on 7 October 2009. Retrieved 9 March 2008.
  3. "Scalable High Quality Solution". Retrieved 14 May 2008.
  4. N/A, N/A. "N/A". LiveStation. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  5. "Livestation demonstration". Archived from the original on 7 July 2007. Retrieved 5 July 2007.
  6. The Livestation revolution Archived 2011-04-16 at the Wayback Machine. Livestation Blog. 11 April 2011. Retrieved on 21 April 2011.
  7. http://support.livestation.com/customer/portal/articles/1842844-list-of-available-news-channels-
  8. Unavailable in Iran.
  9. Unavailable in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Japan, China, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.
  10. Unavailable in China.
  11. Unavailable in China.
  12. Unavailable in the United States
  13. Available in English, German and Spanish
  14. Available in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Turkish
  15. Available in English, French and Arabic
  16. via app
  17. Otherwise, reception is limited through GeoIP filtering, and depends on the location of the receiver. Despite advertisement boasting Deutsche Welle TV, this channel is not available in some locations, including but not limited to the United States. Livestation viewers can add channels from a directory, and may add their own choice of channels to the directory (limited to Windows Media streams).
  18. Available in English, Arabic and Spanish
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