It’s called Ziln, ladies and gentlemen, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why it’s called that.

But Ziln does do something very interesting; it provides an array of programming choices all in streaming video.  It includes seven full-on New Zealand channels, as well as fourteen news and business channels, including Al-Jazeera, all piped in through set-top boxes.

It’s designed to provide an alternative to mainstream New Zealand television, and it’s the kind of thing that could definitely take off.  In order to kill a streaming network, you’re pretty much going to have to either shut down the site from which the stream originates or you’ll have to shut down the entire internet.  And once you do THAT, well, all hell’s going to break loose, make no mistake about that.

Anyway, this is a great move for New Zealanders, who apparently have the internet access and bandwidth to handle a streaming network.  Who knows where such a development will lead from there?