The Apple App Store has already given BitTorrent Live the green light into its platforms last December and the app has just landed at the Google Play Store. That is quite an affirmation of legitimacy for a company best known for pirated goods and its dominant role in the peer-to-peer community.
But what really is BitTorrent Live?
BitTorrent Live
The app's name is not exactly indicative of its nature. It is not in the business of torrents or peer-to-peer sharing and seeding. Focus on the titular Live because that is what the app is all about: a streaming television platform. It is, therefore, hovering within Netflix's category.
Live TV Programming
If you think that BitTorrent Live is also conducting a shady operation, pirating TV shows, then you are wrong. It streams a number of legitimate but free channels, which cover news, live events, lifestyle, youth culture, wealth, and sports, among others.
The current selection is still quite limited but considering the app's infancy that should be understandable. Some notable names include TWit, One World Sports, NASA TV, QCS, and France 24.
If the brand's popularity is any indication, it should be drawing huge number of users in the very near future. High adoption rate could mean an expanded list of channels and the developers could even opt to offer paid service or exclusive content and challenge the likes of Netflix and Hulu.
Seeded TV Streaming
One other interesting factor in the BitTorrent Live app is the developer's claim that it is offering an innovative technology to deliver stable and fast streaming.
"Powered by our proprietary and patented peer-to-peer live streaming protocol, BitTorrent Live allows for large audiences to view live video with sub 10-second latency and without the need for an expensive CDN or pre-provisioning," BitTorrent said in a statement.
The company explained that the app also enables every user to be a broadcaster, which is analogous to a framework wherein a viewer is seeding the broadcast. According to BitTorrent, this ensures that the video stream remains strong, with speed and quality comparable to traditional over-the-air TV. Here, a stream that has a high number of viewers will have better quality than those with lower number.
Aside from BitTorrent Live, BitTorrent has also released an ad-supported video and music streaming service, file synchronization, and more. Users in some locations have reported that they cannot find the app at the Play Store. If you want to install it, you can also download its APK file and install the app manually.
