It sounds enticing, but don’t get too excited: BitTorrent Live has just launched for the Apple TV, with versions for iOS, Mac OS X and Android following this June, but the app itself is just a video streaming platform for a variety of no-name channels.
What channels exactly? AWE, essentially a 24/7 version of the tv show MegaYachts ; FAST&FUN, which is a channel dedicated to vroom-vrooming from the safety of your couch; Fightbox, which is about arm wrestling (and MMA); OANN, not affiliated with CNN; and TWiT, which super seriously needs to feature Kevin Rose and Leo Laporte sharing a bottle of scotch and lamenting the lingering aftereffects of corporate meddling.
For the full list, head over to Venturebeat to read their write up. But suffice to say the channel offerings are middling, and this app is the latest in a long line of deep ocean flailing from a company that revolutionized P2P piracy. This means that BitTorrent Live will not support adding your own torrents to the program, while the content that’s being offered is 100 percent legal.
The BitTorrent Live app takes advantage of the same titled protocol revealed into beta in 2013, which means you’ll uploading bits of data to other users while using the app. Something to consider if you have a limited data plan, when the mobile versions are released. The trade-off is that the broadcasters themselves save thousands on bandwidth and other infrastructure costs.
