It is now possible to watch hundreds of international live satellite TV channels
for free over the Internet. Some of the channels include live sports channels, documentary and news channels, music channels and many more. All you need is a broadband connection and some freely downloadable software. Best of all, the quality is usually high and the video streaming is very smooth.

How is this possible?

The Magic of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Streaming

We're all familiar with the endless buffering and frame skipping of traditional
streaming video, even those with broadband connections. The reason for this
is that traditional streaming video providers (usually) use only 2 or 3 centralized
servers to deliver streaming content to hundreds of Net users at the same time.
With peer-to-peer streaming, there is no centralized server. All viewers (or
'peers') watching a certain video stream will also act as streaming 'servers'
to the other users - so if 10 people are watching a certain stream, what we
have is effectively 10 'servers' streaming the content - making it much faster
for everyone. It's sort of like BitTorrent, but for streaming video. Like Bittorrent,
the more you upload stream segments (i.e the longer you watch a certain program),
the more stream segments you can download (i.e the stream will be smoother and
faster).

P2P streaming programs became really popular during the last World Cup, since
a lot of countries had the really good matches only on satellite TV. We had
to put up with Chinese football commentating (cos the matches were shown over
China's CCTV channel), but it was well worth it

What Channels Can You Get?

The usual channels that you get are from Asian satellite TV. Some of them are
English-language channels like ESPN, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, CNN,
BBC, HBO, Cinemax, Star World, Star Movies etc. Depending on the program used,
you can also get some European or Latin American channels. If you want to watch
live football, like live EPL matches for instance, the best channels are the
CCTV channels.

The Software

There are a few of them out there and they are all free to download and use. I'm just listing a few of the more popular ones.
They all seem to come from China (hence the prevalence of Asian satellite channels).
For any of the programs to work, you need the latest version of Windows Media
Player, RealPlayer or Winamp. A broadband connection is a must!

Get the latest
version of Windows Media Player here [1]

As for or RealPlayer, I recommend using Real
Alternative [2] instead. It's a less bloated version of RealPlayer. With Real
Alternative, you can play RealPlayer files without having to install RealPlayer.

Also, don't forget to open the relevant ports in your firewall. Each program
uses different ports, so look in the program configuration/settings to find
out what it is.

I've tested the programs listed here, and none of them seem to contain any
spyware or malware. However, download at your own risk.

Sopcast

Even though there's a Sign up/Sign-In option on the website, you don't
actually have to sign up to use it. Sopcast has the usual selection of Asian
satellite channels, plus some European channels, South American channels and
even channels from India and Bangladesh. In addition to the standalone program,
Sopcast also comes with an ActiveX control so you can watch the channels from
inside Internet Explorer. Unlike most of the other programs, the Sopcast channel
listings are all in English.

Download Sopcast here [3]

Sopcast channel listing [4]

PPLive

Lots of channels in this one. The satellite channels appear to be from Taiwan.
If you like Hong Kong movies, this is the place to go as there are quite a few
movie channels (Some adult channels too). High quality video.

Download PPLive
here [5] - In case the link doesn't work, here's the translated
download page [6] with a list of mirrors where you can download PPLive.

PPLive
Main Page (translated) [7] - Nicely designed site featuring recommended programs,
channel information and more.

PPLive
channel listing (translated) [8] - It's best to launch the channels from here,
as the channel listings within the PPLive program are entirely in Chinese.

TVKoo

The channel listings are inside the program. Some channel listings
are in English but most are in Chinese. The video is high quality and fast.

Download ViviPlayer here [9]

TVKoo Main Page [10]

Final Tip

If you're waiting to see a live football match, get the stream started good
and early so by the time the match starts, you can already start watching the
smooth and hitch-free stream.

* Disclaimer: This article is strictly for education purposes only.