Livestation viewers have already spent seven years watching live news on their PCs. This is impressive considering the platform has not launched yet and is still in its trial period.

These figures clearly demonstrate that there is an appetite for live news and events delivered direct to the desktop, whether in the office, at home or on the move.

Livestation CEO, Matteo Berlucchi, commented “These figures tell us a lot about the importance of working in partnership with the broadcasters as we provide them with a new, global audience and drive traffic back to their channels and websites. Interestingly broadcasters who have a link on their website to Livestation, such as Al Jazeera English, have attracted far more viewers than those who did not. This week, the number of minutes of Al Jazeera English output watched on Livestation passed the one million mark, that’s almost two years viewing already, and we are not even into our public launch yet.”

Berlucchi added, “Imagine how this partnership with the broadcasters will change the global TV viewing landscape once there is heavy promotion and Livestation actually launches.”

Russell Merryman, the Editor in Chief of New Media at Al Jazeera English said Livestation was one of several platforms used by the channel to reach the online audience, but he was impressed, not only with the figures, but with the sustained quality of delivery.

“We have been in touch with Livestation every step of the way and are extremely happy with these results. As a technical trial the Livestation service has demonstrated its real potential, the team have responded well to all our questions and helped us ensure that we exploit the platform in order to achieve the maximum benefit for our channel and our users,” he said.

Livestation enables anyone with a broadband connection to watch leading international television and radio news channels on their desktops free of charge. It provides an economically viable and scalable solution for delivering live television to mass audiences over the Internet and unlike other live streaming solutions.

Other broadcast channels include Al Jazeera, BBC World News, Bloomberg Television, EuroNews (English, French, Italian and Spanish), France 24, i>Tele, Russia Today and BBC World Service. Currently in beta, Livestation is due for public launch later this year. Registration and download of the Livestation player is quick and easy, only requiring an email address and username: www.livestation.com