The big theme at our NewTeeVee Live conference last week was the coming mash-up of online video with the traditional TV services. Today, Grid Networks, a Seattle-based startup that uses P2P techniques to distribute videos, has released a new service, GridCast TV, that allows TVs to receive Internet video streams.
How it works is actually pretty simple. Any computer that has Grid’s plug-in installed can look for UPnP (universal plug and play) devices and then re-point the stream to the big screen television.
The new GridCast TV service can already reach over 35 million homes, because it leverages existing UPnP (universal plug and play) devices such as the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Internet-enabled TVs. The service doesn’t require a set-top box or any other additional hardware. Some Grid Networks customers, including Revision3, IndieFlix and havocTV, have already begun using GridCast TV to deliver high-value video to their viewers’ TVs, and others will follow in the weeks ahead.
Grid Networks raised $9.5 million from investors that include Panorama Capital, Cisco Systems and Comcast. The company has managed to get its P2P client software bundled in many products including gear from Cisco’s home networking products.
Related Post from GigaOM: Grid joins the P2P CDN Party.
Disclosure: Grid Networks is funded by Panorama Capital partner Allan Leinwand, who is a guest columnist for GigaOM.
I read the EULA. No thanks. I’ll stick to sites like YouTube and Hulu that don’t require P2P. There’s enough junk eating up my processor time, bandwidth and disk space already.