BitTorrent today launched BitTorrent Live, a multi-channel streaming video app for Apple TV.
Think of it like live TV, with prime coverage in five areas: news, sports, music, technology, and youth culture. The Apple TV version of the app will be released this week, while versions for Android, iOS and OS X are expected to follow in June. The application will also be released for Windows at some point.
If the BitTorrent Live name sounds familiar, the name has been used in the past but not to describe the application.
It has been reported since March of 2013 that BitTorrent released an open beta of BitTorrent Live, using the P2P protocol to stream. This project has stopped now, and BitTorrent Live announced today is a completely different idea using the same protocol.
According to the company the app will be powered by “proprietary and proprietary to degree patented peer-to-peer protocol for live streaming” that will allow large audiences to view live video “with 10 seconds latency and without the need for a CDN.”
If BitTorrent manages to convert downloaders to uploaders, BitTorrent Live is supposed to turn viewers into broadcasters.
The plan sounds really big, but BitTorrent has been struggling for a long time to be able to announce it and commit it publicly.
We will probably soon learn if it is recorded as another attempt, or it will actually be implemented, because it has possibilities and can not be denied.
