Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008
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NBC Directs Tests New Download Platform with P2P Distribution, Report

NBC Direct, the platform to deliver downloads of high quality programming, is opening its beta testing, according to a report in NewTeeVee.

This is different from Hulu, the joint venture of NBC and News Corp. Hulu streams flash video. NBC Direct provides a downloaded file to save and watch in "true" 720 HD.

As HD files are so large, NBC will incorporate a substantial peer-to-peer component. Providing the P2P technology is New York-based Pando Networks. Earlier this month I caught up with Pando CEO Robert Levitan who explains the integration of Pando and the quickly evolving transformation of P2P technology as a "rogue application" to a legitimate protocol.

Update: The new Adobe Flash player announced late yesterday has a P2P component built in according to this report by Hank Williams in his WhyDoesEverythingSuck?. Hank says the new player "kill CDN's." Wow!

-- Andy Plesser