The timing couldn’t be better for Kazaa and Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis to launch their new TV-based startup, The Venice Project.
Rumors of the new startup first emerged in late July in Business Week, Business 2.0 and GigaOm. This week, more details emerged on Janus Friis’ blog where he says:
It’s simple, really — we are trying to bring together the best of TV with the best of the Internet. We think TV is one of the most powerful, engaging mass medias of all time. People love TV, but they also hate TV. They love the (sometimes…) amazing storytelling, the richness, the quality itself. But they hate the linearness, the lack of choice, the lack of basic things like being able to search. And wholly missing is everything that we are now accustomed to from the Internet: tagging, recommendations, choice, and so on… TV is 507 channels and nothing on and we want to help change that!
While the above taken alone describes little more than YouTube, the earlier business week article above gives a few more hints: P2P distribution technology based on the same technology behind Kazaa and Skype, deals with television networks, time shifted TV over the Internet.
The time is right for this. Consumer demand is there and the networks seem ready to take the step. Apple has secured rights to over 220 television shows and sells them on iTunes. YouTube’s market valuation has been set at $1.65 billion by Google, showing the value of simple show clips on the web. And the networks have shown that they are open to trying new distribution options through the Internet. If Niklas and Janus have been successful in securing rights to network shows, we’re about to be introduced to something which is very likely to result in me cancelling my cable television subscription once and for all.
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Another “some” billion dollar acquisition in making?
If they do it the right way they’ll end up with a hell of a lot more than a billion.
“…which is very likely to result in me cancelling my cable television subscription once and for all.”
If you like watching tv on your computer - I don’t. Most of us don’t have Slingboxes or HTPC’s. I hope along with the site they try to partner with a hardware solution provider in some form, because then we truly all could cancel our cable ;).
Also, Mike, YouTube wasn’t valued for it’s content, it’s valued for the audience. The market value of YouTube doesn’t really illustrate much about online video - the traffic does. However, people on YouTube like to watch other people doing interesting things. You can’t find these things anywhere but on the web. However, you CAN find TV on your TV, and with things like Comcast on Demand and TiVo, most of us can watch whatever we want to watch, when we want to watch it, on our big screen tv’s from the comfort of our couch.
Nevertheless, I can’t wait to see it in action.
“we want to help change that!”
Yeah, sure… Friis and Zennstrom just want to do anything that makes as much money as physically possible. What will be most interesting is whether the media companies that hate hate hated Kazaa will be prepared to forgive these two for creating it. They’ve managed to avoid all the flak and fall out so far.
And why bother going with the Venice Project when you can set up your own bittorrent distribution systems with your own tagging? why bother paying zillions to Zennstrom and Friis when you can, say, buy up the beta Tape It Off The Internet and get something far better?
Personalized television is an interesting and possibly a “killer” application of the future. I have more detailed comments on this at http://techraw.typepad.com/app.....#trackback .
There are other companies also in this area such as Veveo but I am sure the approaches will be different.
“People hate TV because it doesn’t have tagging”, I LOL’d.
I chuckled. I’m printing this and pinning it on my wall.
From business week :http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2006/tc20061005_609149.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_more+of+today%27s+top+stories
To get started, users need to download a piece of software from the Web and install it on their PCs. When they boot up, the software will connect to the Web and open a full-screen window displaying “near high-definition” quality video images.
While the software turns your PC screen into something that looks a lot like your TV, the capabilities go far beyond anything you’ll experience in your den. Jiggle your computer mouse, and a variety of tools appear along the edges of the screen, even as the video continues to play.
At the bottom of the screen, there are controls like those on a DVD player, including stop, pause, and fast-forward, as well as a search window to find new videos. An image on the left includes a menu of preset channels. And on the right, there’s a set of interactive tools that let you share video playlists with friends or family. An image at the top of the screen identifies the channel and the name of the clip you’re watching. All of the images can be expanded by clicking on them with a mouse.
Its looks similar to : http://www.getdemocracy.com/
People hate tv because they are scared.. And they are scared from tecnologies because they know, for example, that THIS can happen to them:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/.....satellite/
—————————————————————
No, if they can do THIS:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/.....satellite/
They can do anything
—————————————————————
Aren’t these guys still supposed to be running skype? Did they leave and take on this?
Yahoo has the chance to get ahead of the Venice Project and articulate their vision to others. To this point, they haven’t and they should: http://breakoutperformance.blo.....ss-or.html
Eric
I dumped my Cable TV this summer. A few of my favorite show’s are on the web at the respective Television Network, such as “ABC’s LOST & Desperate housewives”, and that’s good enough for now. Comcast moved my bill from $85 to $130, which was WAY too much money for what you get. I remember the days when you paid for cable TV to avoid commercials. Anything that brings television to the web will be a hit
Thanks to their know-how in the P2P technology these guys already helped global customers to be no longer the slaves of the :
- Music Majors with Kazaa
- Historical telcos with Skype
- TV cable networks with the coming Venice Project.
They deliver the supreme promise of the internet: the freedom of choice.
Many thanks guys.
There are enough of those P2PTV like Sopcast. Quality is always an issue and no matter what you promise I am really beginning to worry about the network hog in the coming years.
The more we will depend on ethernet or newer technologies like HSDPA, 802.16 standards, the more we will be hogging the connectivity. A lot of data through wireline and/or wireless in the coming years to see.
I wouldn’t sump any cable TV so fast. Be aware its about muscle power and its not time yet!
People like Franck Poisson need to wake up.
These guys did not invent P2P and did not invent VOIP there were services in this market with millions of users before these guys launched their me-to software.
They simply got lucky with skype by hyping it up.
Pat-
You said “Yeah, sure… Friis and Zennstrom just want to do anything that makes as much money as physically possible” but I don’t think you’re seeing the whole picture. Brilliant guys like that don’t need the money. They do it because it challenges them- I’m an entrepreneur at heart and I know, even if I had 5 billion dollars, chances are I’d still be starting my own companies and working on projects that I love. IMO- the REASON these guys are so successful is because they are passionate and love the challenge of building something great. Too many people think it is always about the money- It’s NOT.
It’s inevitable that internet tv is going to continue to develop - people spend alot of time on the Web, and the companies that make and distribute shows and TV content aren’t going to let go of that money. I read months ago in the WSJ that comcast was making some specific move and in it the reporter noted that one of the tv manufacturers is trying to develop an internet connected tv - it won’t necessarily be focused at “surfing the Web on your tv” (as in the past) but that the shows will feed through the IP channel directly into the tv itself, yet the end user’s experience will be similar to what they are already used to. Tons of action going on in this space - I think it’s a safe bet to gamble on but it’s still early yet (which means there’s going to be some time before everybody finds what works).
In my opinion, platforms online will be similar to tv networks, distributing user drive AND/or professionally produced content. But we’ll see. If you watch what’s going on in telecom, there’s definitely a strong push to get everything over the IP channel.
Michael you know about my project, I think - news and stories of like this one on TechCrunch just makes me excited!
Prediction: This will be bought by Microsoft within 2 years of launch. These guys understand P2P. Microsoft is the king of partnership making. This will be powerful.
Internet and TV are being converged rapidly. One of example of this convergece can be found at tvgate.com where users can see more than 1,000 TV Channels world widely. By adding interactive features to the site, people may share their preference for channels and programs that will be a good way to select good contents for them.
This isn’t new, Veoh, Bit Torrent, and a number of others are already doing this kind of stuff.
Dont really think these guys can do wrong…
well may be they can go wrong…it may be initial hype…but if they make it there will be nothing like it…anyway i m exited and waiting…all the online channels dont work…i have tried and its not what online tv shd be..
I’m with Patricia on this one overall…whether its these 2 again or another bunch of people is another matter, but as referred to above VoiP was not exactly unknown before Skype yet they broke the boundaries.
Would iTunes TV ever get sold to Google? GoogleTunes?
“with old pals Gore and Schmidt working together.”
From an article at webpronews.com:
http://www.webpronews.com/topn.....ssWho.html
uh, just found current.tv I think I’m catching on now.
IPTV is the next hot thing on the net. Here are some of
the key things:
1) Over 1 million viewable channels ( or rather content pods)
2) 1 searchable engine which can intelligently sift through the content for you
3) Ability to tag the channels/content
4) Ability to cast your video on demand ( are you seeing me now)
Time is definetly right. Question of who can make the move to market first and with the most momentum.
Please send me an invite to joost (aka, The Venice Project),
hiker2k3@yahoo.com
Many Thanks,
Patrick.