Main P2P streaming services

3.4 Main P2P streaming services

3.4.1 SopCast

United Kingdom 11.7%

Italy 10.3%

Spain 9.3%

India 5.6%

SopCast is the most popular service for unauthorised live streams of sporting events. Figures from NetResult show that as a proportion of all live P2P-based streams detected for football, basketball, and cricket, SopCast accounts for between 50% and 60% of all streams.

The developers of the client offer a downloadable software application as well as a browser-based plugin which allows users to embed live video streams into web sites, blogs, and forums. The application is available for Windows and Linux. It is basic in appearance but was quickly adopted by viewers seeking sporting content.

The developers are eager to work with known groups of users who focus on sporting piracy. For instance, after a recent version of SopCast was found to contain bugs, the owners of MyP2P provided private beta testing of a new version through their forums, with feedback sent direct to SopCast developers. As discussed elsewhere in this report, the service has also proved willing to cooperate – though after some pressure – with some sporting rights owners and SopCast no longer allows MLB streams to be uploaded or carried. This action demonstrates the high level of control which the developers exercise over the service: unlike many file sharing networks like bittorrent, there are a number of points in the SopCast technical architecture where the developers and owners can alter, delete, or ban individual streams (and registered users).

As with most P2P streaming software, direct links to SopCast streams can be placed on forums and link portals for others. This allows for the simple distribution of streams: when all that is required to be shared is a hyperlink, providing access is simple. Further, SopCast provide a browser-based plugin: this means that streaming video can be directly embedded into a web page, obscuring the standalone application and making stream connection as simple as loading a web page.

The SopCast tracker – the central server which manages and controls the streams and those connected to them – is accessible to any registered user (and registration is free). This means that a user on a basic residential broadband connection can stream television content of their choice direct to thousands by using the SopCast client and backend technology to handle the multicast distribution.

One of the most significant aspects about the visitors to SopCast’s main web site compared to those for most other peer to peer television services is the low proportion of viewers from China. The countries which supply most visitors to the main SopCast site tend to be those with strong Western sporting interests: for instance, basketball in the US, football in the UK, Italy, and Spain, cricket in India. The strong western interest is also shown by the fact that the main web site and the client itself are natively in English (though Chinese translations are available). However, this does not mean that Chinese viewers do not visit SopCast streams (figures from NetResult show that half or more of viewers on many sporting streams are located in China) – for many viewers, once the software is installed (and SopCast can be downloaded from many mirror sites as well as sopcast.org) there can be little reason to visit the main web site.

3.4.2 TVAnts

China 10.4%

Spain 8.7%

Italy 6.5%

Germany 5.7%

As with SopCast, TVAnts is developed in China. However, the service is mainly aimed at Chinese users: the main web site and the client are entirely in Chinese with no translation available. Sites such as MyP2P provide English-language translations and installation and operation guides for the client. Once installed, it is fairly easy to use and as most Western users will access streams on the service through a direct link on a portal site, the fact that the software application user interface is in Chinese is not of significant importance.

TVAnts emerged out of an academic project at Zhejiang University. Control now appears to have passed to a different organisation, though this company does not appear to be profit-making. Contact details provide a hotmail address and there is no advertising present on the web site or within the client.

As with SopCast, TVAnts provides a tracker to which any user can upload and broadcast a stream from their own computer and also allows streams to be embedded into web pages. The owner has the same level of control over streams carried by its service as SopCast and can remove streams or prevent particular users from uploading if necessary.