alarm:clock

Video - Monday, October 23, 2006

The Biggest Venture Story In Mainstream Media: The Next YouTube?

When the YouTube story hit, clearly every major news outlet from USA Today to PBS had to run their Next YouTube story. The conventional wisdom seems to be that innovation in video will continue to come from VC-backed start-ups, rather than technology developed by Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Netflix, Apple or Microsoft. This does make some sense to us as there are so many video start-ups running with their own angles that some are bound to make break-throughs. However, Todd Dagres, general partner at venture capital firm Spark Capital, estimates that only 10% of today's 300 video startups will survive.

This weeks' BusinessWeek article 'What Comes After Youtube" stokes the fires at BitTorrent, calling it a huge suprise that it is doing deals with big media, rather than getting sue it into oblivion. As BW notes, today, BitTorrent announce deals to put BitTorrent software on DVRs, cable boxes, and wireless routers, enabling BitTorrent to download legal movies or TV shows to PCs and TVs.

Says BW about VeniceProject, the stealth mode company founded by Skype and Kazaa co-founder Janus Friis: "Right now, the startup that's creating the biggest buzz is the Venice Project. That's the code name for a service that expects to launch by the end of this year. Rather than join the 150 YouTube video-sharing clones dishing up short, static-ridden videos, the Venice Project is tackling the problem of streaming long videos of nearly high-definition-TV quality in a cost-effective way. It's counting on peer-to-peer technology (P2P), which creates a network of users whose individual computers help share the burden of distributing files. Unlike Kazaa, the Venice Project won't let people illegally trade copyrighted works. Instead, the company is in talks with media and TV companies to create ad-supported channels for full-length, professional content. Individuals can also upload videos. "People love to watch TV," says Friis. "And people love the Internet because of the choice and the social qualities. We're trying to bring the best of both worlds together."

Read - What Comes After YouTube Meet the startups making deals with Big Media for online video's next step (BusinessWeek)
Read - The Next YouTube? (Forbes)
Read - YouTube of video games? (Mercury News)
Read - CBS wants to buy the next YouTube, not YouTube (Reuters)