Zattoo to launch ABC News Now in UK

Switzerland-based IPTV provider, Zattoo, has secured a deal with ABC News and Disney-ABC International Television, to distribute the ABC News Now channel in Germany, Spain and Belgium.

Zatto expects to launch the channel in the UK and other countries by May 2008.

ABC News Now, which is already available to around 34 million users, is a 24-hour news and information network. It features news headlines every half hour and other programming.

The Zattoo IPTV service is free to view and requires no additional hardware. It is available by downloading the Zattoo player from the company’s website.

Zattoo offers a commercial peer-to-peer (P2P) network optimized for streaming video. The system, which was developed by researchers and scientists from the University of Michigan, uses live-streaming as opposed to sharing stored files.

The company has recently secured contracts with German public broadcasters for the distribution of ARD and ZDF