Mipcom 2009 – Cannes. The online video portal Livestation will soon launch its new dedicated player for free download. New features include Twitter integration, multiscreen and the ability to subscribe to premium services.
Livestation offers live streams of news channels including BBC World News, Al jazeera and Euronews and is available both in the browser (using Flash) and a dedicated player for PC, Mac and Linux.
The second generation player offers exciting new possibilities such as multiscreen. Viewers can watch more than one channel at the same time and build their own mosaic of channels with multiple live streams.
Also new is Twitter integration. Viewers can grab a screen shot from one of the news channels and create a tweet using TwitPic. “Our next challenge is to grab video clips,” said Matteo Berlucchi, CEO of Livestation.
The third improvement in the Livestation player is the addition of premium services. “Basically, Livestation is free and ad supported,” said Berlucchi, “but if people want a better quality picture they can buy a premium subscription.” Viewers will be able to chose between up to three different download speeds, according to their broadband subscription. At the moment, only Al Jazeera offers a premium subscription on the portal.
On a technical level, Livestation was recently in the news for building an application which allows live streaming of channels to the iPhone. “The BBC asked us to build it and we came up with it in two months time,” said Daniel Adams, VP Business development.
At Mipcom, Livestation was busy talking to many broadcasters and the company hopes to announce new distribution agreements in the near future.
