Can BitTorrent Live video streaming kill TV?

By James Gaskin, ITworld | Cloud Computing, BitTorrent, Bram Cohen Add a new comment

February 14, 2012, 11:46 AM —

Bram Cohen explains "implicit cherry picking" after his talk at Web 2.0. October 8, 2005

flickr/irina slutsky

Bram Cohen, inventor of BitTorrent, wants to replace television with P2P video streaming over BitTorrent.

BitTorrent's model is as far from TV as you can get: instead of a monopoly with a few sources of content, BitTorrent turns millions of subscriber PCs into content relays. Cohen reengineered BitTorrent to speed the service to handle live video streaming for video conferencing on up to live sports events. He says consumer will benefit as the cost of bandwidth and storage continues to drop.

The trick of any CDN (Content Distribution Network) is the content it distributes. Consumers like to watch Internet TV on their televisions. But getting better, smoother access to streaming Internet content won't matter if quality content isn't included.

Thrilled

Bring it Bram, I am waiting first in line! I cut the cord 20 years ago and look forward to a one size fits all platform!
Ric on gigaom.com

Congrats to Bram and the BitTorrent Team! This will make it very inexpensive (mostly free) for schools, churches, high school sports teams and the like to stream video to their communities and fans.
George Revutsky on techcrunch.com

I can’t wait to see this protocol in action. Where do I sign up for beta testing? ;-)
From Stage on gigaom.com

Details, please

This is too late to kill TV. Jersey Shore already did that.
Max Woolf on techcrunch.com

Question numero uno: is it open source?
Marcus Estes on gigaom.com

However a few kinks to work out - Territorial issues, programming is staggered by territory. Ad targeting - Different ads for different countries how would this work.
Hoi Sta on techcrunch.com

Heard this before

Maybe this is just me being cynical; but didn't they already try (and fail at) this with Joost?
cankoklu on businessinsider.com

Client crashed, video player choppy - what a joke
Natsai Petsai on techcrunch.com

I loved that idea when it was called Octoshape!
Heard of this... on businessinsider.com

Hard to bet against BitTorrent shaking up another entrenched business model. But the status quo has huge revenue streams to protect, as seen by the attempts to pass SOPA and PIPA.

James E. Gaskin writes books (Texas Hysterical Society is number 17), articles and jokes about technology and real life from his home office in the Dallas area. Gaskin has been helping small and medium sized businesses use technology intelligently since 1986. Write him at james@gaskin.com.

View the discussion thread.

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