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August 2007 – UK firm Skinkers is developing a new peer-to-peer based video service which will allow consumers to watch live television on their PC, and at a later stage on any Internet-connected device.
The new service will use LiveStation technology, which it acquired from Microsoft along with Silverlight streaming video technology. Microsoft owns 10% of London-based Skinkers, impelling some to call the nascent service a “Joost-killer”, although neither have yet fully launched and Joost offers video-on-demand rather than live broadcasts.
Skinkers promises a “quality image with no buffering or stopping,” and the firm is currently trying to attract content providers and pay-TV services, who would be able to get their live TV content in front of anyone with an Internet connection. Skinkers also claims that viewers can “click on a TV advert exactly as they do on the web but while watching your existing TV channels.” A version of LiveStation for Macs is reportedly being developed.
Matteo Berlucchi, co-founder of Skinkers, commented that the company is beginning beta testing now and expects to have a finished product on the market by October this year. “We’re making very good progress. We’re fine-tuning the peering because it’s like fine-tuning a Formula One car – you have to go on the track a lot to get maximum performance. The next thing is doing multi-channel because one of the big challenges is channel changing. We think we can get low latency and we’re hoping to do it in the range of Freeview, which is about three seconds to change channels.
“Then the other step is to get content on there. We would offer the platform to broadcasters… Where we think we’re going to be lucky is that broadcasters all want to simulcast and they’ve already taken the first step to broadcast over IP.”
Skinkers is working to develop a version for Windows Mobile which can be used on mobile phones and other portable devices, and according to the company will work best via Wi-Fi.
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