Livestation Recent News

Livestation 3.0, tweet what you are watching

Tue Nov 24 11:49:25 UTC 2009

The new Livestation Player 3.0 allows you to tweet what you are watching and to view multiple channels at once.

After 8 months of hard work since the last release, I am glad to announce the launch of Livestation version 3.0, our latest desktop software for watching live news channels on your computer.

The latest release, available to download free of charge here, includes new functionality which we haven't seen anywhere else.

Tweet what you are watching
You can now use Livestation as a native Twitter client so you can follow your friends and post your tweets directly under the video window without having to switch applications. But more interestingly, you can screen grab what you are watching with a handy button and have the screenshot posted with your Twitter update in one easy click. This is an example: Link here

Multiview
As our player is to all extents a multi-protocol and cross-platform video player, we thought it would be quite cool to be able to watch more than one channel at once. So, with Livestation 3.0 you can now do that by simply clicking on the + icon available next to each channel. It's quite simple and here's a screen shot Link here

Pro
We have also created a pro version of the player which viewers can purchase for a one off price of £14.99. Livestation Pro 3.0 has no ads, unlimited Multiview and more importantly all the partner channels are delivered via a dedicated, high performance data network for maximum reliability and for a better viewing experience. Here's a more in depth description: More on Pro

Premium Channels
The new player also supports premium channels which viewers can purchase on a subscription basis. Premium channels are delivered in 3 different qualities for maximum flexibility: low or 'internet cafe' mode, medium for every day watching and high for standard definition and plasma viewing (adaptive bitrates coming very soon too). Al Jazeera English was the first channel to go premium on our platform with more high profile international channels to follow soon.

As always, you can find out more about Livestation at www.livestation.com or get in touch with me directly.

Thank you very much for your attention.

The Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) selects Matteo Berlucchi as a judge for their annual awards.

Fri Oct 02 15:19:21 UTC 2009

The Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) today announced the judges for the AIB’s International Media Excellence Awards 2009. The selection of judges, which consists of 20 leading international media and business representatives from across the world also include our CEO, Matteo Berlucchi.

The International Media Excellence Awards (IMEA) will be presented at a gala evening on Wednesday 4th November 2009 in London, UK. The event is held each year by the AIB, who are renowned for their independent assessment of quality, using external and peer review by respected professionals from the broadcasting and wider media industries.

This year, more than 200 entries have come from more than 30 different countries and a shortlist of entries has been compiled from which the judges will make their final selections.

The judges have a vast range of experience in different aspects of broadcasting and are drawn from all over the world.

The full list of the selected judges is: Amir Jahangir, CEO, SAMAA TV, Pakistan; Danforth Austin, Director, Voice of America and Acting Director, International Broadcasting Bureau, US; Michael Joseph, CEO, Safaricom, Kenya; Billy Wright, Global Head Media & Games Partnerships, Nokia, UK; Hanh Tran, Chief Executive, Radio Australia, Australia; Nahida Nakad, Deputy Director, Arabic Service, France 24, France; Darby Sanchez, CEO, Globecast Asia, Singapore; Matteo Berlucchi, CEO, Livestation, UK; Alla Salehian, Director, Global Media Services – Associated Press Television, UK; Torsti Tenhunen, CEO, Hasan & Partners Oy, Finland; Dirk Beusch, Senior Project Manager, Deutsche Welle TV, Germany; Dr Nabil Khatib, Executive Editor, Alarabiya News Channel, UAE; Natasha Elkington, AlertNet Correspondent/Humanitarian Crisis Reporter & Online Editor, Thomson Reuters, London; Russell Grute, Director of Marketing, Pharos, UK; Marcus Metzner, Head of Marketing & Communications, S4M, Germany; William Bird, Director, Media Monitoring Africa, South Africa; Corne Bouman, Managing Director, ProSkope, The Netherlands; Lem van Eupen, Head of Strategy, Radio Nederland Wereldomroep, The Netherlands; Julian Clover, Editorial Director, Broadband TV News, UK; Samuel Attah-Mensah, General Manager, CitiFM, Ghana; Simon Spanswick, CEO, AIB, UK.

The AIBs are independent and attract entries from throughout the world, representing the best of international radio and TV. The fourteen different categories cover the broad spectrum from single news events to long-term investigation and from traditional terrestrial broadcasting to innovative use of multi-platform formats.

The Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) provides information, networking and insight for the international broadcasting industry - cross media, cross border, cross-cultural.

Its membership brings together international TV and radio stations, news agencies, satellite operators, regulators, research institutes and providers of technology. It covers TV, radio, online and mobile and its publications reach over 25,000 people in broadcasting and related sectors.

Livestation is the online destination for global TV and radio news, offering international channels from Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, BBC, C-SPAN, Deutsche Welle, euronews, ITN, France 24, Press TV the Democratic Voice of Burma and Russia Today.

The Livestation service can be accessed via a browser or via a desktop player which integrates with the latest and most popular social networking trends, offering users the ability to share, chat, and take control of their viewing experience. Livestation is also offering some of its partner channels on the iPhone.

Fro more information contact daniel.adams@livestation.com

Five becomes first UK broadcaster to offer live streaming football via iPhone app

Wed Sep 30 16:53:28 UTC 2009

UK public service broadcaster Five has partnered with online video specialist Livestation to offer live streaming of Europa League football via Apple’s iPhone.

The application allows live viewing of every one of Five’s Thursday-night fixtures throughout the 2009-10 season, plus highlights of each week’s competition, for a one-off fee of £3.99.

The app, beta tested earlier this month, works via both wifi and 3G connections. It goes live in time for this Thursday’s (1 October) tie between Celtic and Rapid Vienna at Parkhead.

Five’s Head of Digital Media, Jonathan Lewis, heralded the app as the most inexpensive way for UK football fans to watch European games live on mobile.

“We’re offering a genuine service to football fans. The app, which delivers the highest video quality seen on mobile so far, is attractively priced and means never having to miss a minute of the live action when you’re on the move.

“It also exemplifies Five’s strategy to extend the reach of our long-form, ad-supported video content to as many platforms as possible, with the aim of generating additional incremental advertising revenues.”

Five already has the most ambitious content distribution strategy of any UK commercial broadcaster. In addition to its online catch-up TV service Demand Five, it is constructing content driven vertical portals, including Holy Soap and FiveFWD, that are aimed at precise demographics.

In addition, Five has become the latest partner in Project Canvas, a joint venture between the BBC, ITV and BT to deliver broadband-connected television to the living room. It is also the first broadcaster to announce plans to explore participation in a similar VOD service from Sony Bravia.

For more information about the app, follow this link:

- ends -

For further information, contact:

Five: Paul Tyrrell on 07971 020514 or Andrew Sholl on 07736 364 656 Daniel Adams at Livestation on 020 7579 8358 or daniel.adams@livestation.com

Five’s Europa League coverage
The Europa League is the exciting successor to the UEFA Cup competiton, Five has live and exclusive terrestrial rights to the tournament from the group stages to the final in Hamburg next May. The coverage is presented by Colin Murray, with expert analysis from former top players Pat Nevin and Stan Collymore and former England manager Graham Taylor. Peugeot Motor Company has secured exclusive sponsorship rights for the competition for its Peugeot Van Range.

About Livestation
Livestation is the online destination for global TV and radio news, offering international channels from Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, BBC, C-SPAN, Deutsche Welle, euronews, ITN, France 24, Press TV and Russia Today. The Livestation service can be accessed via a browser or via a desktop player which integrates with the latest and most popular social networking trends, offering users the ability to share, chat, and take control of their viewing experience. Livestation is also offering some of its partner channels on the iPhone. For more information please visit www.livestation.com or email leads@livestation.com

Richard Wolffe: Behind the scenes with Barack Obama

Thu Sep 03 09:58:35 UTC 2009

This Frontline Club event is fully booked, but you can watch it live on Livestation

Richard Wolffe covered the entire length of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine, traveling with the candidate and his inner circle from his announcement through to election day, 21 months later.

In Renegade: The Making of a President, award-winning Richard Wolffe exposes what was going on behind the scenes during some of the most dramatic moments of the race, including his response to Bill Clinton’s critical comments and secret meeting with controversial pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. The idea for the book came from Barack Obama who the basketball games and conversations over carrot cake have prompted criticism that Richard Wolffe was too close to his subject.

Hear Richard Wolffe talking to Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow about his behind the scenes access to the man who became President.

Richard Wolffe currently works as a political analyst for MSNBC and as a strategist for business advisory firm Public Strategies and contributes to The Daily Beast.

He previously served as a senior White House correspondent for Newsweek and as deputy bureau chief for the Financial Times’ Washington DC office.

Renegade: The Making of Barack Obama is published by Virgin Books on 27 August

Livestation Chooses Wowza Media Systems to Bring Live TV News Directly to Consumers’ iPhones

Thu Sep 03 09:33:50 UTC 2009

Livestation and Wowza to Showcase Technology at IBC 2009 in Amsterdam

EVERGREEN, COLO., and LONDON, UK, September 3, 2009 – Wowza Media Systems®, the media server software company, today announced that Livestation is using Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced® software to bring global TV and radio news from channels such as BBC World News and Al Jazeera English directly to consumers’ iPhones.

"Using Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced has allowed us to provide our partner broadcasters with new opportunities to broadly distribute their content to different digital screens without making a heavy investment in multiple technologies to reach each destination screen," said Matteo Berlucchi, CEO, Livestation. "The ability to stream directly to the iPhone is especially exciting because it instantly opens up a TV-ready market of more than 40 million consumers."

A leading online TV platform that allows users the ability to share, chat, and take control of their viewing experience, Livestation is using a preview release of Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced to expand TV broadcasters’ reach to new audiences while providing viewers a way to consume live TV on any digital screen, including the iPhone.

"The iPhone is clearly one of the most sought after screens for content owners and broadcasters," said Dave Stubenvoll, CEO and Co-Founder, Wowza Media Systems. "As a result, we are seeing more companies come to us for solutions that take advantage of this huge new market, while still needing to fully support streaming to the more traditional screens. Today, we are helping companies like Livestation deliver content with our unified platform that makes it economical and operationally simple to reach consumers wherever they are – on their iPhone, on their desktop, or their home TV."

Wowza Media Systems and Livestation will be demonstrating this technology at the International Broadcasters Convention (IBC) 2009 in Amsterdam, September 11 – 15 at stand IP331 in the IPTV Zone.

About Livestation

Livestation is the online destination for global TV and radio news, offering international channels from Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, BBC, C-SPAN, Deutsche Welle, euronews, ITN, France 24, Press TV and Russia Today. The Livestation service can be accessed via a browser or via a desktop player which integrates with the latest and most popular social networking trends, offering users the ability to share, chat, and take control of their viewing experience. For more information please visit www.livestation.com.

About Wowza Media Systems

Wowza Media Systems is the media server software company that provides an industrial strength infrastructure for live video, video-on-demand, live recording and video chat. Wowza has a singular focus on delivering high performance media server software to service providers, media properties, enterprises, and other organizations serious about delivering video to any digital screen – computer, mobile phone, home TV. Wowza’s media server software has been deployed by more than 30,000 global licensees in entertainment, social media, advertising, enterprise, education, government, and Internet commerce. Wowza Media Systems is privately-held with headquarters in Evergreen, Colorado and offices in Silicon Valley. For more information, visit www.wowzamedia.com.

Wowza, Wowza Media Systems, Wowza Media Server and related logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Wowza Media Systems, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:

Jennifer Roane
104 West Partners
jennifer.roane@104west.com
720-407-6065

Livestation partners with weComm to deliver live TV news on all smartphones

Mon Aug 10 13:17:22 UTC 2009

LONDON, 10th August 2009 - weComm, the leader in interactive mobile data solutions, today announced that it has partnered with Livestation to deliver live TV news to mobile handsets including Android and BlackBerry devices.

Livestation already delivers high quality live TV streaming services on iPhone for world class news partners such as BBC World News and Al Jazeera. weComm wave On-Demand Mobile Application Platform™,will enable Livestation to deliver live broadcasts from Livestation’s global news TV partners to all leading mobile operating systems.

Live TV content will be available for a monthly subscription and the service will provide access to other news formats from the same providers. The companies will distribute the service in a number of easy-to-subscribe methods including through the major mobile handset-manufacturers’ application stores.

weComm’s wave platform uses a client-server infrastructure to deliver high-quality, interactive mobile data services optimized to all major mobile operating systems. The technology delivers content and applications to handsets on-demand, giving the richness and interactivity of an on-device application combined with the flexibility and freshness of an online service.

Matteo Berlucchi, Livestation CEO, said of the partnership: “Time to market is key for us. By partnering with weComm we can now deliver a high-quality, live TV experience very quickly to the market across the broadest possible range of smartphone devices.”

weComm CEO Graham Summers: “Livestation has an extremely well targeted proposition which has clearly excited the world’s leading news channels. weComm is delighted to have been chosen as the mobile partner to help Livestation exploit their fantastic service on a wider range of platforms.”

For more information:
Emma Wescott
+44 207 448 7800
emma.wescott@wecomm.com

Daniel Adams
Commercial Director, Livestation
+44 20 7579 8386
daniel.adams@livestation.com

About weComm
weComm deploys rich media mobile applications to the phones of the customers of Global Media Brands. We deliver to our customers rapid, maximum distribution of mobile media content that is optimized for handsets, networks and above all for change. Speed and cost effectiveness are at the heart of the weComm proposition. Founded in 1999, weComm is headquartered in London and is privately held. For more information please visit www.wecomm.com.

About Livestation
Livestation is the online destination for global TV and radio news, offering international channels from Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, BBC, C-SPAN, Deutsche Welle, euronews, ITN, France 24, Press TV and Russia Today. The Livestation service can be accessed via a browser or via a desktop player which integrates with the latest and most popular social networking trends, offering users the ability to share, chat, and take control of their viewing experience. For more information please visit www.livestation.com.

Media control in Iran

Thu Jul 02 15:48:18 UTC 2009

Livestation sees surge in viewers from Iran after the presidential elections

On The Listening Post, we take a look at the Internet and new media controls put in place in Iran...

Full story on the Al Jazeera website here

Mobile TV, video and apps - oh my!

Thu Jul 02 15:43:33 UTC 2009

Livestation on Reuters TV

After years of talking up the potential of TV on the very small screen with disappointing results, there is a movement within the mobile industry to take video in new directions.Matt Cowan reports.

Full story and video here

Exclusive: unverified video of 2 young demonstrators being shot/killed in Tehran

Sat Jun 20 21:26:37 UTC 2009

We have just received this video at our support email for our iPhone service for BBC World News.

It's not verified but it's dated 20.6.09.

We are passing it on to BBC for verification.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees channel goes live on Livestation

Thu Jun 18 15:23:45 UTC 2009

A new broadband channel highlighting the plight of more than 42 million uprooted people worldwide is now being streamed globally on Livestation, the online destination for live broadcasting.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) is now broadcasting appeals in a constantly updated flow of stories from some of the most urgent refugee flash points around the globe. A direct link to the UNHCR donation page is available on the Livestation player. The channel is available at this address: http://www.livestation.com/channels/68

The decision to stream the stories on Livestation was taken to coincide with World Refugee Day, which falls on 20 June each year.

It’s a date that the UNHCR uses to try to spread awareness about refugees and other displaced people and to raise funds for operations in countries such as Afghanistan, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq and neighbouring countries, Pakistan and Sudan.

Matteo Berlucchi, the CEO of Livestation, said the decision to invite the UNHCR to create a channel on Livestation was taken because of the growing demand for factual information about the plight of millions around the world who are forced to flee their homes by conflict and persecution.

“Livestation already has a rich array of partner news channels telling stories every day about those who are caught in the cross-fire or made to leave their homelands under threat.”

“The UNHCR channel will play an important role in showing the human suffering behind the headlines” he said.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide.

Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country.