Livestation goes social with major redesign

Livestation, the popular online platform for streaming live TV and radio news broadcasts, has launched a major redesign of its website, bringing integration with Twitter and Facebook.

The website, originally developed using peer-to-peer technology acquired from Microsoft Research, offers a range of live streams of channels such as Al Jazeera English, BBC World News, Bloomberg Television and France24.

After attracting more than 75 million unique visitors last year, Livestation has today announced a major design upgrade to its platform taking into account feedback from users.

The headline feature is Livestation's new links to Facebook and Twitter. Users can now share a live stream of what they are watching on Facebook, or track what their friends are watching on Twitter, and even tweet a screenshot.

On the discovery side, Livestation's new content and language filters are intended to make it much easier for users to browse and discover new channels.

The video streaming quality has also been "doubled", which Livestation said would make premium channels "near DVD-quality".

"In the coming weeks we will be announcing several new channels and product announcements," the Livestation team added.

Livestation does not invest in marketing or PR to promote its service, but rather relies on providing easy access to TV channels over the internet to build an audience.

The website is particularly aimed at people without access to preferred news channel on their digital TV service. For example, BBC World News and Al Jazeera English are two of the most viewed channels on Livestation in North America, largely because they have struggled to gain carriage deals on traditional platforms.

Last April, Lippe Oosterhof was appointed as Livestation's new chief executive, replacing the site's founder Matteo Berlucchi, who decided to concentrate on the launch of eBooks social discovery platform Anobii. Berlucchi retains a seat on the company's board.