Announcements

A NetShow announcement points clients to the information needed to receive a multicast, or to the source of a unicast stream. An announcement is a text file, saved with an .asx extension, designed to be distributed to clients that want to receive NetShow programs.

For a multicast, clients use the announcement to retrieve the channel file containing channel information.
If the multicast is also available as a unicast, the announcement can also provide the information the client needs to connect to the NetShow server and receive the unicast.
For a unicast, the announcement provides the client with the information needed to connect to the NetShow server providing the unicast stream.

NetShow uses announcements with ASF streams only.