Live Tv Streaming Service Providers

• Live Tv Streaming Service

Oct 17, 2018 - The best live streaming services give you another option to traditional. You may not have many providers to choose from, leaving you with no. With services like Showtime, HBO, Hulu, and many others now streaming their programming online, cord cutting has firmly entered the mainstream. Here's a guide to the best streaming TV packages. Sep 21, 2018 - We picked DIRECTV NOW as the live TV streaming service that's best. While Sling TV's pricing beats out the other providers, you gotta make. Hulu with Live TV. Key takeaway: If you’re already paying for Hulu, this live TV streaming service is worth a closer look. Its Limited Commercials plan comes with the $39.99 monthly package.

Within the last few years there's been a new explosion of TV in our lives. Before, we were content to watch television on a schedule dictated by the broadcasters, but things have moved on a long way since then. We now have a huge range of services that let us get our fix of programmes and movies at any time and through a multitude of devices. No longer are we confined to the living room; the internet lets us watch TV anywhere in the house, while portable media devices like smartphones and tablets keep us entertained on the move – some even with downloads. Viewing habits haven't quite kept pace with technological advancement, so although the amount of time we spend watching television is increasing every year, we're still a long way from ridding our homes of the big TV. Just 0.2 per cent of people in the UK watch TV exclusively online, but with 12 million tablets currently in use in the UK, the second screen is here to stay. As the number of services increases, along with the number of ways we can access them, the future of TV becomes ever more muddled and confusing.

Which service do you trust to supply your programmes? Do you really need catch-up TV?

Do you buy your movies through your TV provider, or should you stream them online? Do you want to watch TV on a laptop, phone, tablet, or TV? Most importantly, how much should you pay for it all?

Answering these questions isn't an easy task, and the service providers scrapping for world domination don't help either. From Netflix, Lovefilm and Blinkbox to YouTube, iTunes and Now TV, we're here to cut through the jargon and tell you what's worth a second look. We'll look at what traditional content providers like Sky and Virgin are offering, and what they're doing to keep pace with an ever-evolving industry.

We'll also take stock of what the plethora of online services, apps and new platforms like YouView are offering to see if they can compete with the big guns – even, while is also gathering pace on a few LG TVs for 2013. Are we looking at a future without linear TV at all? Catch-up apps and on-demand streaming services are certainly about more than just replacing DVDs, but will the likes of Sky, Virgin and even YouView one day be mere apps themselves on the smart TVs of the future? BBC iPlayer The BBC, with its publicly supported TV empire, is a long-standing British institution, so it should come as no surprise that its digital service – BBC iPlayer – was the first of the online catch-up facilities to appear as broadband internet connections hit the mainstream.

This is part of the reason for iPlayer's popularity, but it's also head and shoulders above the rest in terms of content and delivery. At least for now. In December 2012 alone the BBC received 174 million requests for iPlayer, a rise of 22% on December 2011. IPlayer's content is made up almost entirely of TV shows, along with the occasional film, which have already aired on terrestrial TV and can be watched for a week after they're made available online, though some landmark BBC series are available for 30 days or even in perpetuity. What makes iPlayer even better is downloads – at least if you use the new apps for iPhone and iPad, or the browser-based service's desktop counterpart.

The chance to take a laptop, tablet or smartphone full of downloaded BBC programmes (which expire after 30 days) makes iPlayer a dream come true for commuters and frequent flyers. The desktop and iOS apps have another significant advantage over the browser version – and other catch-up services – because it lets you 'favourite' content and thereby set a series link. IPlayer will do the rest of the work for you. IPlayer's other celebrated feature is high definition content, which is ripped straight from the BBC's two HD channels. However, if you have a keen eye for quality you'll notice that HD programmes seem to have been compressed somewhat so they can be streamed down the pipes without causing any hiccups. With these impressive features available to anyone free of charge, iPlayer is clearly ahead of the game.

Provided you don't have to watch something the minute it's broadcast, iPlayer will meet all your needs. If you're happy sticking to BBC content, it could even make Freeview TV redundant. More than just catch-up TV iPlayer doesn't just offer catch-up TV either; it airs a reasonable amount of live TV as well, mainly sports broadcasts and the like. It's started to provide HD streaming too, and has promised that in 2013 it will broadcast around 100 hours of content exclusively via iPlayer. Although its Android apps (which require a messy additional download of a BBC Media Player app) and its streaming-only catch-up service for the BBC's radio stations are a poor relation, iPlayer's myriad versions are a thing of wonder.

Found on Xbox360 and, iPlayer apps crop-up on every smart TV platform as well as on YouView, Sky and Virgin and countless other third party devices. To date, no other catch-up service has managed to branch out to such a diverse range of media-consuming platforms, and iPlayer looks set to further capitalise on its growth as the BBC looks at ways of improving its mobile broadcasting. One feature that might see the light of day is DVB-T2-Lite, which will let the BBC offer reliable live broadcasts on mobile devices with less impact on battery life.

We have yet to see whether this will work with 3G networks and allow truly mobile TV consumption. The iPlayer is a national obsession and the gold standard – worldwide, even – for streaming TV. Verdict: 5/5 2. YouTube Ask someone what they think was the biggest internet revolution of the 21st century and they'll probably say it was. And with good reason - the user-generated video-blogging site has changed the online landscape forever. It lets anyone, however well known they are (or not), whatever the quality of their content and wherever they hail from, upload their weird and wonderful videos for anyone around the world to watch at their convenience. The beauty of YouTube is that in the blink of an eye it's taken the broadcasting power from the bigwigs and placed it right in our hands.

OK, so it might not have stopped people wanting to watch a high quality, professionally made production in their living room TVs, but it's an insight into how TV might be produced in the future. After all with YouTube you don't need a big budget – or indeed any budget at all – to produce your own TV series and establish a massive following. YouTube also lets you share high definition content all the way up to the mighty 1080p, and the site has even started experimenting with 3D viewing. The service isn't just dedicated to amateur video bloggers and filmmakers either - it also has a section where you can watch catch-up TV from the likes of Channel 5 and 4OD, as well as a variety of films and live TV events. Although it's at a disadvantage in terms of the amount of relevant content it can offer through these channels, YouTube's key strength is its ability to find something you're interested in watching quickly and easily. If YouTube's catch-up function doesn't offer what you're looking for, chances are you'll be able to find it elsewhere on the site - after all, its users upload a staggering eight years' worth of content every day. Multi-platform YouTube has universal appeal, and it's no surprise that you can access its video-sharing resource almost anywhere, no matter what the device you're using.

There are apps available for just about any mobile device, media player and smart TV, but the unique thing about YouTube is the way its content is shared between users. The site is a social powerhouse, with around 17 million people sharing their videos with an accompanying social network like Facebook or Twitter. Although it might sound like an excuse for one of your friends to annoy you with yet another video of a dog being beaten up by a cat or a dancing parrot, the sentiment is important: if everyone shared the programmes they watched live or via catch-up with their online associates, their viewing figures would no doubt increase dramatically.

The latest HTML5 versions of YouTube apps across all devices allow secure pairing; browse for video on one device (say, a smartphone or tablet), add it to your 'watch later' list and it's instantly available on another device (including a smart TV's YouTube app, the YouTube app on a TiVo box, games console, tablet or smartphone). Verdict: 4.5/5 3. Netflix If you're a connoisseur of movies and/or TV, there's only one game in town – and that's between Amazon's Lovefilm. It is, however, something of a race to the bottom, with the truth being that there's not a lot of truly must-have new movies and TV to stream from either; both operate in a different window to Sky, Blinkbox and iTunes, so get their movies a little later. Not all smart TVs have both Netflix and Lovefilm apps – most do – but on most devices, be it an iPad, a smartphone or a games console, it's a straight choice between the two.

The quality of the movies and TV we tried – mostly streamed in 'super HD' – on both TV and on tablets is exquisite. The problem of content is most pressing for Netflix, which charges £5.99 per month for unlimited streaming, but doesn't offer downloads. Netflix runs on a PC and Mac, Apple TV, the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3, Android phones and tablets, Windows Phones, iOS devices, internet-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players, and streaming players from, Roku and Western Digital.

Live Tv Streaming Service

The most recent addition to the list is the Kindle Fire HD. Trying to find a film you actually want to watch, and that's less than a few years old (and often decades) is tricky, but Netflix is trying hard to bolster its brand – and its reputation for being the place to go for if you're into TV dramas, rather than movies (though it claims 6,000) – by hosting exclusives.

House of Cards aired on Netflix alone during February 2013, and the CEO is. Good luck to him – the availability of the latest content is really the only complaint we have about this otherwise splendid service. Verdict: 4/5 4.

LoveFilm Instant Is it any better than Netflix? Yes, it is, but only if you consider its core old-fashioned-but-reliable postal add-on service. It's a bit ludicrous in our digital age, but such is Hollywood's conservative attitude to the internet (why do they hate it – us – so?) that only the postman can bring you the latest releases. Is available for PC and Mac, the Kindle Fire HD, iPad, Xbox 360, PS3, internet-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players, Sony's Home Cinema system, Sony's Network Media Player and the Onyx Digital Stream set-top box.

For the moment we'll gloss over Lovefilm's peerless selection of DVDs and Blu-ray discs (not that you don't have to wait for top-line discs – you certainly do) and consider Lovefilm Instant A streaming-only service, it offers north of 4,000 titles, though entire series are rolled into one, so there's actually closer to 9,000 individual episodes and movies. A new 4OD selection of comedy (think Peep Show, Spaced, The Inbetweeners etc) is bolstering Lovefilm's non-film content, but it's also beginning to test the waters with pilot episodes of new comedies from its own Amazon Studios. It will soon host 11 original TV series test pilots for members to stream for free, with viewer response helping to determine which series go into full-season. A nice idea, but until the movie selection on Lovefilm Instant can rival that of its disc library, it can only ever equal Netflix in terms of streaming. However – and call us old-fashioned – but the chance to have a couple of Blu-ray discs at home puts it just ahead of its rival; streaming is great, but Blu-ray still rules and it makes sense to have it as part of the mix if you're seriously into movies.

Verdict: 4/5 5. ITV Player, previously known as ITV Online, is the place to go if you want to sift through the range of programmes available on the broadcaster's channels, but it's getting more and more commercial. It's a popular service, with 321m views for first nine months of 2012, a 23% increase on 2011. The service couldn't be simpler to use and everything you could want is within easy reach. When you open a program, you might find yourself getting a little annoyed at the two adverts that play at the beginning, as well as subsequent adverts that play throughout the show, but this is how the channel is funded. This is ITV after all, not the BBC, and it doesn't benefit from TV licence fees. February 2013 saw its first online premiere, of 666 Park Avenue, the day before its linear TV broadcast on ITV2, though in future it will charge for that service.

ITV also charges for shows older than seven days from their initial broadcast – typically around 69p – as well as older archive content, though it does have a habit of populating the 'recommended' section exclusively with pay-for content. We can't argue with the commercial realities, but what happened to free-to-air broadcasting? We're probably not the only ones who would only pay for a show if it could be downloaded. That said, ITV Player is searching for a workable business model and has made a decent stab at universality; aside from its streaming-only iOS apps, PS3, YouView, Virgin and Sky versions, ITV Player as a smart TV app is presently exclusive to Samsung's smart TVs and Android devices. PS3 users can watch via a channel on YouTube. Verdict: 4/5.

So, you’ve decided to stream a live event, and you’re considering your options. You definitely need a streaming server to reach your target viewers. You could buy and install your own server (or rent a cloud instance), but then you’d have to create the player and configure and manage the server yourself, which requires lots of technical expertise that you may or may not have. Or, you can use a service provider to supply this functionality. There are multiple classes of service providers that can get the job done. For example, if you’re currently using an online video platform (OVP), it’s likely that it has support for live streaming (or soon will). If so, you can use the player and all other features you’ve created for your on-demand video and your existing analytics, and your live events are converted to on-demand streams and added to your library right after the event.

This level of convenience is tough to beat. If you don’t have an OVP, another class of services called live streaming services might be the best option.

You can start streaming live at no cost, with various trade-offs in terms of resolution (HD or SD), third-party advertising, branding, and scalability that vary among the service providers. As your live streaming activities flourish, you can opt for different levels of service that remove these limitations and provide much more control over security, monetization, and branding. Since most of these services, which include popular sites such as, and most recently, are popular sites with many viewers looking for content, these sites may also deliver viewers that you wouldn’t reach if you only displayed the video on your own website. Though most of these companies are only about 6 years old, the market is fairly mature, and you’ll find more similarities than disparities among the contenders. For example, they all work similarly. You use a live encoder to send a stream (or streams) to the service provider, who displays the video on a dedicated page in the service, which I’ll call the channel page. Depending upon the vendor and the plan you’ve selected, you may also be able to embed the live stream into a page on your own website.

After the event, you can usually trim frames from the start or finish (if necessary), create highlights, and download the video so you can deploy it elsewhere. You can also check viewing analytics to see how many viewers tuned in and for how long.

By this point, most services are very social media-aware, with easy links so viewers can tweet and like and otherwise spread the word. They also recognize that viewer interactivity is key, so most enable comments and chat to some degree. Otherwise, with all this similarity, how do you choose the best service for your live events? By focusing on the topics identified here, starting with what you want most from the service. Looking for Eyeballs? If you’re looking for eyeballs, you definitely want to know which sites have the most traffic.

According to Compete (using November 2013 data), among the non-YouTube participants in the group, Livestream has the most traffic, though there is one potentially significant asterisk. Specifically, Twitch, a Justin.tv sister-site dedicated to live gamers, recorded about 2.23 million unique visitors in November 2013, though unless you’re attempting to reach these gamers, it’s not relevant from an eyeballs perspective.

However, it is relevant from a scale perspective, meaning that the combined viewership from Twitch and Justin.tv is the largest (non-YouTube) of the group, so the combined entity should have lower delivery costs and more users to spread development costs over. I’ll also point out that according to comScore statistics Justin.tv shared with me (but that I wasn’t able to independently verify from comScore), Justin.tv had more viewers than both Livestream and Ustream, and much better ratings in metrics such as minutes-per-viewer and videos-per-viewer.

Of course, none of these numbers are relevant if the viewers these sites attract aren’t likely to be desirable viewers for your content. So if eyeballs are your goal, it’s best to spend some time looking at the existing content on the site and assessing whether existing viewers are good candidates for your content. What about YouTube? Well, YouTube is obviously the largest, but that’s combined on-demand video and live, and we know the former dwarfs the latter at this stage, which might make your live content harder to find. As will be discussed later, there are also some important features that YouTube lacks from a live perspective. Just because it’s the largest, that doesn’t mean it’s the best.

White Label: How White and at What Price Level? All live service providers except YouTube offer a “white-label” version without the service’s branding. The question is, how much does it cost to lose the label?

For example, with Livestream and Ustream, you have to commit to the $999 plan to remove the respective company’s branding. Justin.tv’s plan costs $399, while Stockholm’s Bambuser costs $599 per month. Beyond removing the service’s branding, you may also want the ability to add your own branding, which could include options such as choosing the background color for your player and adding a logo to the page or a bug over the video. In the same vein, you may also want to disable the channel page (so viewers can only watch the embedded player on your website), password-protect or restrict the embedding of your videos, or even geo-block viewers in some geographic locations. Not all services offer these features, so get them on the table early if they’re important to your intended use. Which Site Delivers the Best User Experience? This one is definitely subjective and content-specific, and there are two extremes: one represented by Livestream, the other by Ustream.

Specifically, Livestream presents each event on a separate page, with extensive live blogging capabilities to add videos, pictures, and comments to the experience. This is great when you’re attempting to present a complete experience as opposed to simply a live stream. The other extreme is exemplified by Ustream and is also used by most other services. In this paradigm, each publisher has a separate page with live videos (or formerly live) shown in a window on that page with a defined chat area, usually to the right of the video. Surrounding the live video are other videos from the same publisher, which is a great way to retain a viewer once you have them on your page. When researching the various options, visit some live events on all candidate services and assess the channel page for each service.

Though this is my subjective opinion, in general, Livestream optimizes the event, perhaps at the expense of the channel page, while other services optimize the library of events but don’t deliver as rich an experience for each event.