(Associated Press via NewsEdge) The founder of Fastweb, Italy's No. 2 telecommunications company, is now seeking to bring Internet television to as many of the world's 300 million broadband users with an Internet TV network called Babelgum.
Babelgum, which will be introduced publicly in a testing phase this month, uses peer-to-peer technology supported by an in-house server to deliver free video to computers anywhere in the world where there is a broadband service, going head-to-head with Joost, founded by the Internet gurus who invented Skype.
'We're here, the technology is cutting-edge and the timing is right,' Fastweb founder Silvio Scaglia told reporters.
Whereas competitor Joost has been snatching up content deals with Viacom, Scaglia is going after the niche market with Babelgum by seeking to offer a broad catalog of specific content that potential viewers would have hard time finding elsewhere without having to constantly conduct computer searches.
While content deals were still being worked out, Scaglia said the video provided will be professionally produced, contrasting with the amateur footage that has fueled YouTube's popularity. Babelgum, which is launching in English, will start by offering a minimum of $5 to a content provider for every 1,000 hits.
Scaglia said he began exploring the idea of Internet TV two years ago, but said only recently had conditions become ripe to launch such a venture: a sufficient penetration of broadband connections, a well-developed peer-to-peer network and decreases in the cost of computer memory.
Fastweb was the first company in the world to offer video on demand over the Web.
© 2007 The Associated Press
© 2007 Dialog, a Thomson business. All rights reserved