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June 20, 2007

Veoh Announces VeohTV, A Sort of Distributed Joost

Michael Arrington

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Veoh’s been busy. In addition to running its popular video sharing site, which is known for higher-quality streams (in terms of bitrate), they’ve announced VeohTV, which is best described as a distributed Joost.

The service, which involves, like Joost and Babelgum, downloading new software which becomes a sort of “video browser.” But instead of doing deals with content providers and piping content directly to users, VeohTV is letting users pull content from around the web - a “single interface to search, browse and view all video on the Internet.” Accepting that IPTV will be decentralized is the same theme driving Truveo’s success, AOL’s video search tool.

Basically, if its out there on the Internet, and Veoh can pull it in, you can watch it. Veoh says this is great for video sites, since they can continue to embed advertising, etc with the content.

Will it work? It certainly might. I’ll have to wait and try out the software first. But the vision is solid. This avoids the time and cost of doing licensing deals with content owners. Like Real’s new player that allows users to basically bookmark and locally store video, it assumes that video will continue to be widely distributed across the Internet. Whoever creates the best interface for the content will win users, and liquidity events.

This also spells eventual trouble for online TV guides like Meevee (not to single them out). If people have a tv and its hooked up to a computer, as more and more people do, they’ll eventually expect video on demand from the Internet. The online TV guides weren’t able to figure out how to bring this content to them, and now services like Veoh, Joost, Babelgum and others have just done an end-around.

Meanwhile, don’t forget the social aspect of watching TV, and how the Internet can help facilitate that. BuddyTV is a service to keep an eye on. No IPTV, but lots of chatting going on during shows from loyal users.

See Erick Schonfeld for his take. More screenshots below.



  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 2:41 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Chris

    June 20th, 2007 at 3:38 am

    >

    I am not sure this is as important as search …

    >

    Yes, Yahoo versus Google all over again

  2. Jason Jenkins

    June 20th, 2007 at 4:03 am

    Nice! Although they are not doing deals with content providers, its still a great asset for those content providers who have a solid online distribution model. Any technology that helps locate and organize video content gets my praise. Here at Abstract10.com we already have content being distributed through Veoh, and we are looking forward to “indirectly” supplying VeohTv with content . If there are any other companies in the online video space looking for a content partner, please hit me up!
    thx
    Jason Jenkins
    The Abstract Surrealist
    jbirdmobi@yahoo.com

  3. Adam benayoun

    June 20th, 2007 at 4:23 am

    That’s sounds like a good and solid product and the screenshots look amazing but my only concern would be who will held responsible for “illegal videos” ?
    Since they arent hosted at VeohTV, that might works and people will be able to watch them until they are removed from the site in question but what if VeohTV will be held responsible by pulling them and showing them ot users (somewhat acting as a distributor of illegal content).

  4. heri

    June 20th, 2007 at 4:43 am

    any word if it works on mac?

  5. Rachel

    June 20th, 2007 at 5:00 am

    I got a demo of this last week and it looks good. It does a great job of web search finding all sorts of video. I’m waiting for my beta invite now.

  6. Guy Snir

    June 20th, 2007 at 5:08 am

    I didn’t do a feature to feature comparison, but this sounds similar to the Open Source Democracy Player (http://www.getdemocracy.com/)

    I have been using it for some time and I am very happy with it.

    Guy

  7. steve

    June 20th, 2007 at 5:43 am

    Over at last100, I’ve posted my thoughts on VeohTV, picking up on the company’s plans to get its software into a set-top-box:

    …we’re hearing more and more about software-based online TV solutions harbouring plans to get their services into a dedicated set-top-box, rather than relying on the PC. Joost has hinted at this direction, and recently we’ve reported on BitTorrent’s Software Developer Kit for set-top-boxes and other Internet devices, along with DivX’s work on a media streaming box. And let’s not forget Apple who have put a stripped down version of their desktop OS into the AppleTV so that it can act as a media extender for streaming iTunes content onto a TV, as well as, more recently, connect directly to YouTube.

  8. tny

    June 20th, 2007 at 6:13 am

    There are also open source platforms in development for watching Internet TV directly on your Tv. For example ToxTox (http://toxtox.tv/). It’s like Democracy meets Apple TV meets Firefox. You can extend and mashup your own set top experience and add new features and content to a standard platform.
    It is very important that we keep looking at the open and free alternatives as well. Free and Open media are a key for democratic society. You don’t want commercial corporations only to control what you watch!

  9. Richard Miller

    June 20th, 2007 at 7:25 am

    I wonder what the advertising rate will be on it? Let’s hope we don’t get flooded with commercials

  10. Concrete Stain

    June 20th, 2007 at 7:46 am

    - any comparisons to Democracy player?

    -RB

  11. Niraj

    June 20th, 2007 at 7:52 am

    >>This avoids the time and cost of doing licensing deals with content owners.

    While true, licensing deals mean you get a certain level of quality, and it is consistent. You’re not going to find a YouTube resolution video on Joost. So it’s nice that there’s more content, but they could easily have resolutions all over the place, and it includes user-generated content too. I think each one has it’s pros and cons, but ultimately the one that combines licensing and general video content the best will be the one that prevails. And YouTube is getting into licensing now…

  12. Charlie Jackson

    June 20th, 2007 at 9:35 am

    Something that never seems to be mentioned in articles about Veoh is that by using its software, you’re opening your computer up, that it becomes a mini-server for them. I will never use software that opens my computer to everyone else, so that they can retrieve files from my hard disk.

  13. Michael Hoffman

    June 20th, 2007 at 10:34 am

    This was exactly what I was saying in response to Duncan’s overly positive piece about Joost. The web will always — hopefully — be a distributed world with video everywhere. This to me seems like a better model than essentially recreating the walled garden of cable TV on the web.

  14. Cardinal

    June 20th, 2007 at 10:52 am

    When these video search companies make money from banner ads shown while playing videos from other websites, are they not stealing content? Is it fair/legal that they make money from other websites’ inventories?

  15. Jon Carder

    June 20th, 2007 at 2:09 pm

    Again great news for Veoh. They’ve got the vision, they’ve got some serious cash in the bank, they’ve got smart management and they’ve got the development talent. They’re a force to be reckoned with.

    It is companies like this that will redefine how we consume and interact with TV content. It’s exciting to watch this industry grow and change at such a rapid rate. It’s a real win for us as consumers.

  16. Adam Jackson

    June 20th, 2007 at 11:33 pm

    This is a very smart move on Veoh’s part. Joost will have no choice but to keep up and let users add 3rd party content sources. If they do so they’ll be back on top.
    Dream setup:
    primetime TV content + any Internet video anywhere + my own media
    all on 1 TV-connected box (TiVo, AppleTV?) that doesn’t rely on a computer in the middle.
    I just wrote a post about this earlier today. I think we’ll see this in the next year - esp. since Joost is talking to set-top box manufacturers.

    http://www.jacksonfound.com/20.....fferently/

  17. Manuel Rivas

    June 21st, 2007 at 8:31 am

    As a freelance content producer, I have tried different video distribution platforms and I can say that Veoh is moving in the right direction. The video streaming is high-quality and they have the best distribution tools and features to launch video channels. Once they put a revenue-sharing system in place they will make more waves.

  18. Drew Robertson

    June 21st, 2007 at 11:27 am

    It seems like most people on this board are shills for the latest hot video service on the web - Joost or Babelgum or now Veoh. None of these guys can scale to the size of traditional media outlets (offline or online). But they can undercut the old business models. Joost replaces 15 minutes of ads with 3 minutes of super-targeted ads! Veoh shows publishers prerolls! Now maybe you don’t like advertising but dammit I will miss the WSJ and NYT when they’re gone.

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