Comments on: Live TV and Radio with Livestation

By: phillip

phillip — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:42:32 +0000

tv companies preventing access from certain countries is like blogging but restricting your viewers. it just doesn’t make sense.
channel providers can insert advertising into their streams easily so they can recoup costs of allowing access or profit from providing the stream.
the bbc is the worst offender of this. it’s the C21 guys, if ppl aren’t watching you then you can be assured they’re watching someone else and you are becoming obsolete.

By: BBC World on Livestation

BBC World on Livestation — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 07:01:26 +0000

See also the News section on livestation.com:

http://livestation.com/news/21-pc_magazine_newsfocused_public_beta

where the CEO of Livestation is quoted:

“Carrier agreements within the U.S. prevent LiveStation from broadcasting certain channels to LiveStation users in the states. If a provider like Comcast has an agreement with BBC to carry BCC America, for example, BBC would not want to jeopardize its U.S. agreements.”

Well, if they say so…

By: Ross

Ross — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:52:23 +0000

Thanks, I guess that answers why it’s so difficult to get BBC World as an internet stream. I suspect that the deal with Real Networks was signed long ago, before the cable carriers so that has managed to survive.

It’s frustrating because those carriers only cover a small part of country. I guess FiOS is becoming more significant but it’s relatively expensive. I can’t imagine anyone signing up for any of those because of BBC World or, not signing up because they can get BBC World online so it’s hard to see what anyone would have to lose if BBC allowed it on Livestation. I guess I’ll have to be content with Real Networks. It works reasonably well.

Al Jazeera is on even fewer US providers so they clearly make it easy for anyone to carry them online.

By: BBC World in America

BBC World in America — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:59:46 +0000

According to the Wiki entry, BBC World is available in the US as follows:

1. Selected BBC World bulletins on PBS
2. Discovery Communications since Jan-06
3. Cablevision in New York since Sep-06
4. Verizon FiOS in about 10 states
5. Cox Communications in Northern Virginia
6. Grande Communications in Texas

My guess is that the agreements that BBC World has signed with these US partners are structured such that they prevent anybody else to ALSO retransmit the BBC World signal to Internet users on these networks. But that is just a hunch.

Regardless of the actual agreements that BBC World has with its current broadcast and cable distribution partners in the United States, it would probably need to give a retransmission consent to Livestation if Livestation wanted to stream their signal on the Internet to US users.

By: Ross

Ross — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:17:49 +0000

I’m specifically talking about BBC World, not BBC America. I know nothing about what deals go on behind the scenes but I’m skeptical about Cablevision being a problem because BBC World is available as a live stream via Real Networks and I don’t think it’s blocked in Cablevision’s area in New York.

I pay $5.95 per month to get it from Real Networks but I’d much rather use either Windows Media Player or Livestation. Perhaps it’s the deal with Real but then … it’s also available at Jalipo.com at an outrageous price.

By: BBC World and BBC America

BBC World and BBC America — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:59:14 +0000

BBC America and BBC World are available in the US on cable and satellite systems. For example, Comcast and DIRECTV carry BBC America, Cablevision carries BBC World in the New York area.

At least on these network and areas, Livestation will most likely face some serious legal hurdles, and therefore may not be able to carry these channel in the US at all.

By: Ross

Ross — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:24:10 +0000

I’m on the beta too and it’s quite impressive.

My only disappointment so far is that we don’t get BBC World on Livestation in the US. I hope it’s coming and BBC haven’t signed an exclusive deal with someone like Real Networks which is about the only place to get it now.

By: Alternative to Livestation

Alternative to Livestation — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:31:24 +0000

Hello,

I also downloaded Livestation onto my computer, and it works.

If one wants to watch more live TV channels, one can also try out Zattoo (www.zattoo.com).

Zattoo is very similar to Livestation: It is free, streams the actual live TV content, and also uses a peer-to-peer system for content distribution. The quality is comparable to Livestation, although it tends to have more artefacts. The user interface is boring though, but in the end what matters is the TV content itself.