Hewlett Packard has announced a deal to ship a P2P IPTV system with their notbooks (notably the Presario and Pavillion models) beginning in late September. It will also be available as a system update for exiting HP Vista computers. The system is called Next.tv and powered by Dave Networks, a white label IPTV provider. For the launch, Next.tv will feature content from CBS, Freemantle, and Endemol. Their sneak preview also includes MGM, eye.tv, Lazy.tv, and Reality.tv as well. Other partnerships, filling a total of 50 channels, will be announced throughout September.

Next.TV has plans for a desktop version for non HP users as well.

Rex Wong, the former CEO of Applied Semantics (later Google Adsense), is the CEO of Dave Networks. Wong previously expressed a desire to do for video what AdSense did for text. Last April, Rex Wong said, “We will be using the same technology used by Homeland Security to monitor [telephone] chatter. Audio keywording will allow us to contextually figure out where to sell ads and to place more than just pre- and post-roll ads.” He planed to launch the contextual video advertising service on their YouTube competitor, Dave.TV.

While Next.tv’s distribution deal through HP gives them a good head start, they’re going up an increasingly crowded marketplace. Joost, Babelgum, Veoh, British Telecom, Zattoo, and Vuze are amongst the competition. Scoring the best content deals will likely determine who makes IPTV work.

Babelgum has pushed itself public yesterday. On the surface it looks very similar to its more famous competitor, Joost. Both are P2P IPTV applications that let you flip through channels and shows streamed to your computer. Both are backed by deep pockets and big names. In Joost’s corner, Skype and Kazaa veterans Niklas Zenstrom and Janus Friis with $45 million in financing. Babelgum was started by FASTWEB founder Silvio Scaglia with $13.2 million invested.

Yet while the market and pedigree may be similar, the execution in each case differs.

Content

The most noticeable difference between the two has been between the content each is streaming. Joost had the fortune of early hype and pulling together some big content deals from Viacom, CNN, Sony, and the NHL. They also have the benefit of some large media companies, CBS and Viacom, as investors. Similar to when Joost first launched, Babelgum currently streams more generic content from providers like the AP and National Geographic. The latest content deal of note has been Spike Lee screening some of his movie footage on the network.

Interface

Both applications have the same core functionality, allowing you to create your own personalized channel guide. Although, while both applications stream to your desktop, Joost allows you to skip forward and back, while Babelgum plays serially. The larger differences come in the social aspects of the program, of which Babelgum has none as of yet. Joost, however, uses a toolbox of widgets for things like chat rooms and bulletin boards.

The Babelgum interface is similar to Joost, but more complicated. Little things like not being able to double click on a clip to play it are annoying. Play back quality is reasonable; I experienced no buffering or choppiness in playback. Like Joost, playing a clip at full screen on a 22″ monitor doesn’t deliver good picture quality. If content is the driver in TVIP platform adoption, Babelgum won’t be going far. The content selection is nearly as poor as the navigation options; why have tags for videos if you can’t click on them?

Overall

Overall Babelgum feels like a poor man’s Joost. Competition in any field drives innovation and is good for the consumer, yet for Babelgum 2006 is calling and it wants its innovations back; writing on your front page that “Babelgum is a new way of conceiving television” when it is at best following Joost

See our Joost and Babelgum company profiles.

Babelgum:


Joost:

Babelgum, the Joost-like TVIP startup, effectively just launched to the public. Click on this link, which takes you to a press download page, and request an invite. The company has played second fiddle to Joost since it was announced second and it doesn’t have the benefit of being started by Skype’s famous co-founders.

The link above takes you to a press invitation page, but it was supplied by the company along with a message that they have launched publicly.