China is generally not considered a social networking hotbed, but somehow internet TV provider MediaZone has signed that nation’s state-run broadcasting company to use its peer-to-peer streaming Social TV service, the AP reports. MediaZone’s Social TV combines peer-to-peer streaming with community features like instant messaging. Along with China Central Television, MediaZone, a subsidiary of African media company Naspers, has signed up Silver Lake Film Festival, Filmmakers Alliance and WatchItVegas.com, which initially will offer free internet channels. CCTV, for example, will make its two international channels, CCTV-4 in Chinese and CCTV-9 in English, available outside the country using the service. The Social TV service uses a small ActiveX Web browser plug-in to relay live video streams in Windows Media format to Web viewers. The advantage, according to MediaZone, is that given a large enough group of viewers with adequate upstream bandwidth, the peer-to-peer service can reduce bandwidth needs dramatically. The company said it is currently negotiating similar deals with several Middle Eastern counties.
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