The network was founded in 2005 by Netscape pioneers Mike Homer and Marc Andreessen.
[1] After operating for an extended beta period, development ended with the serious illness and subsequent death in 2009 of founder Homer.
The OMN network operated as a large, centrally controlled grid network for the distribution of free radio and TV content over P2P, described as "part TiVo, part BitTorrent file swapping".
The OMN infrastructure was powered by Kontiki grid network technology, a commercial alternative to BitTorrent.
The U.S. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) launched a "download to own" initiative with OMN and Google which allowed viewers to purchase episodes of popular PBS programs via the Internet for viewing anytime, anywhere.