James Delahunty
10 Jul 2007 3:56
Looking to become a bigger player in the video revolution, Microsoft Corp. is placing its bets on its LiveStation service. LiveStation is a Web TV service created by the Redmond-based software giant in co-operation with a software company called Skinkers. Its goal is to offer high quality live TV content on a PC or other computing device, making it an alternative to Joost and YouTube which offer pre-recorded content.
LiveStation allows programming from a PC to be shared with other devices like a set-top box, and eventually a mobile phone. "As far as we can tell, the average user doesn't care to watch TV on their cell phone, but that might change with the iPhone," noted Rob Enderle, president of the San Jose-based Enderle Group. He admitted however that watching video on a laptop while traveling is common and that there have been products doing well in that area.
Beta tests of LiveStation are already underway in the UK, using live content from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). CBS Television Stations announced in April that it would adopt Silverlight, which is the technology underlying LiveStation, for its Web TV initiative that is expected to launch later this year.
Source:
Yahoo (Newsfactor)