The imminent arrival of Joost is making all the headlines but the disadvantage of the long awaited TV app is that it doesn't stream live broadcasts. That's why the makers of Zattoo have decided to launch a new service dedicated to live TV programming which hopes to challenge Joost.

Zattoo is a European project which already has around 300,000 subscribers and will soon become available across the continent. It broadcasts many public service channels in real time including BBC Prime and World, France 2-5, ZDF and Rai Uno. Other channels include Euronews, CNN and Bloomberg.

The first roll-out was in Switzerland where the service has 'zattooed' more than 10% of the Swiss broadband population. Most recently, Zattoo has launched in Denmark where viewers can watch DR1, DR2, TV2, NRK1, NRK2, SVT1, SVT2, ARD, ZDF, and TV Polonia. In the UK, testing is still in private Beta mode which you can sign-up to here. The makers eventually want to break into the North American market.

Initial reports of beta testers is that image quality is excellent bring similar if not better than Joost. Although many of these channels are available on apps such as TVU player, this would be the first time that all public channels are brought under one app with reliable quality streaming. It's an exciting project and I'll certainly be keeping an eye on the latest Zattoo releases on the developer blog.