Popcast Makes Deal with BT

Personal broadcaster POPcast (www.popcast.com) said it made a deal with BTopenworld, a division of British Telecom.

POPcast also said Thursday that it will open a London office, to help cash in on the European streaming marketplace.

BTopenworld's customers will use POPcast's authoring, hosting and streaming offerings. POPcast will create a BTopenworld-branded version of its POPster software that lets users capture and create their own videos. Content created with the software is then published on the Internet for streaming.

Ben Andradi, chief operating officer of BTopenworld is a believer in user-generated webcasting. "Personal broadcasting is the future of the Internet," he said. "The success of ‘fly-on-the-wall' TV shows such as ‘Big Brother', combined with the power of digital broadband technologies and the distribution reach of the Net, will lead to a wave of online creativity and video-based e-commerce."

BTopenworld provides high-speed connections to consumers and businesses.