Zattoo

Infobox Software
name = Zattoo Player



caption = VLC for Linux
stable_release = none
preview_release = 3.1.0 Beta
developer = University of Michigan and Zattoo Inc.
operating_system = Cross-platform
genre = Internet Television
license = Proprietary
website = [http://www.zattoo.com/ www.zattoo.com]

Zattoo is a proprietary peer-to-peer Internet Protocol Television system ("P2PTV") with current focus on European channels, licensed content, and Digital Rights Management. It is developed by researchers and programmers based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, with corporate offices in Ann Arbor and Zurich. The player is based on H.264, and is Mac OS X, Linux, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista compatible. It needs a minimum downstream bandwidth of 500 kbit/s on the client side.

History

Zattoo was first tried out with Swiss free-to-air channels coinciding with the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Starting from 4 Swiss TV channels (SF 1, SF 2, TSR 1 and TSI 1), it now offers 82 free-to-air or free-to-view TV channels in Switzerland. According to the website, other channels will be added in the future. []

On April 20, 2007, Zattoo launched in Denmark with 10 channels and started piloting in the United Kingdom. [cite web|url=http://zattooblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/04/1-million-users/|title=Zattoo launches in DK and pilots in UK|accessdate=2007-12-02]

On October 4, 2007, Zattoo reached 1 million registered users in Europe. [cite web|url=http://zattooblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/04/1-million-users/|title=1 million users!!!!!|accessdate=2007-12-02] [cite web|url=http://zattooblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/09/and-heres-ann-arbor-celebrating-the-big-moment/|title=… and here’s Ann Arbor celebrating the big moment|accessdate=2007-12-02]

Zattoo has been available in Spain since June 10, 2007. [cite web|url=http://zattooblog.wordpress.com/2007/06/19/take-the-bull-by-the-antennae/|title=Take the bull by the antennae|accessdate=2007-06-19]

Zattoo has been available in Belgium since September 27, 2007. [cite web|url=http://zattoo.com/nl/blog/2007/09/belgium-you%2526amp%3B%25238217%3Bre-next%21/|title=Belgium - You’re next!|accessdate=2008-05-08]

Zattoo has been available in France since January 16, 2008. [cite web|url=http://zattooblog.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/carla-for-nicolas-zattoo-for-the-rest-of-france/|title=Carla for Nicolas, Zattoo for the rest of France|accessdate=2008-01-20]

On August 5, 2008, Zattoo asked its spanish users for a 2.40€ charge by sms in order to continue with the service during August and September. [cite web|url=http://zattoo.com/es/blog/2008/08/|title=One coffee for Zattoo (in spanish)|accessdate=2008-08-13]

Availability

The service is currently restricted to Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, Germany, Norway, United Kingdom, Belgium and France, but is expected to expand to other European countries, (with Austria and Poland being at the top of that list [] ) then to Canada and the U.S. while adding fee-based channels to its list. It is also designed to only allow specific audiences to watch specific channels, thanks to geolocation of the IP address assigned to the user's computer (hence the restriction to a few countries for the time being). This restriction prevents, in theory, British users from watching French channels. While BBC World is available to Swiss IP addresses, it is not available to British ones. However this restriction can be easily bypassed by using an open proxy.

List of Channels

See also

* IPTV
* Internet Television
* Jaman
* Joost
* Miro (software)
* Babelgum
* LiveStation

Notes

External links

* [http://www.zattoo.com/ Official site]
* [http://www.last100.com/2007/08/07/interview-zattoo-co-founders/ Interview: Zattoo co-founders (last100.com)]
* [http://www.swinog.ch/meetings/swinog14/Zattoo_Swinog-14.pdf Presentation at SwiNOG: May 30th 2007]