Microsoft gets its Joost on

Blogs lit up like Christmas trees in the last few days over Microsoft's latest foray into the IPTV space. LiveStation, a project under development with British firm Skinkers, promises to deliver live, interactive TV over the Internet. LiveStation is being billed by some as a "Joost killer," (giganticide being the adjectival phrase du jour for new IP video ventures the way every rock band was the new Beatles a very long time ago).

However, the service appears to be more along the lines of Slingbox's shrinkable player rather than Joost, which pretty much just takes over the PC once it's activated. Joost also uses more of an on-demand model rather than live streaming, but both Joost and LiveStation are based on peer-to-peer architectures.

Matteo Berlucchi, CEO of Skinkers, has agreed to visit with FierceIPTV about how LiveStation differs from Joost and Slingbox.  

In the meantime:
- Wired's Terrence Russell offers this summary of LiveStation