RSSKazaa, Skype Creators Turn to TV
By Ed Oswald | Published July 24, 2006, 1:45 PM
The creators of the popular Skype and Kazaa applications have turned their sights on television, aiming to create a new way to distribute video over the Web, BusinessWeek.com reported Sunday. Dubbed the "Venice Project," a product could debut as early as late this year, and negotiations are apparently underway with major television networks.
The hope is that the service will become the method by which all networks distribute their video content across the Web, although how it would work is not known at this time.
Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have assembled a worldwide team of developers to complete the project. However, the new project does not mean either would leave Skype, which eBay bought last year. In fact, the company seems to be encouraging the two to continue innovating, although no investment has been made in their current venture.
If Zennstrom and Friis' past projects are any indication, their newest venture should have no trouble being successful. Kazaa was one of the leading P2P networks behind Napster in the early part of the decade, with millions of users. Skype in just three years has amassed some 100 million users worldwide, and is the world's fastest growing online messaging program.
According to BusinessWeek, Zennstrom would invest in the company, although play a limited role in the overall product. Much of that work would be left to Friis, who would spend a good deal of time developing the business model behind the new service. Neither would be involved in the day to day operations of the company.
"Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are at it again. After disrupting the music and voice cartel's operations, the duo is taking on television," Internet pundit Om Malik said. "It shouldn't come as a surprise."
Malik said he believes that the duo's days at Skype are numbered, and their attention is likely no longer on the VoIP application.
The opportunity is there for the picking and the first stop should be the network news spots. The evening news shows are more vunerable than the big Networks realize.
The evening news is rehashed stuff we all know about already and that is because the web gives it to us as it happens.
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there talking about Peer-to-peer TV here, nothing new!!
http://www.answers.com/P2P%20TV
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Even better... with every video you watch, you get 10 free viruses.
~dnc
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Ah....
AOLTV. Heh..
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DotNet_Coder, what are you referring to?
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Just a random reference to the whole Kazza era and the number of virii you would get with every download (I used Kazza once and in my measley 5.14mb download, I got hit with 3, count them, 3 different virii at once).
Now that it's creators are turning to broad video distribution, I can only imagine where it's going to go, but I am willing to bet money it'll be abused.
~dnc.
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In case you haven't noticed, Skype doesn't infect your computer with viruses. Just because Kazaa did, doesn't mean this will. And besides, the possibility of the video application including viruses is very low since these guys are signing deals with major television networks.
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Who the hell is Om Malik, what is a friggin' Pundit, and why do I give a rat's a** what he thinks?
Hell, I'd more interested to hear what Mr. Burns thought about it...
I'm sure it must be...
*steeples fingers*
Excellent...
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i guess that he(OM) works at Business 2.0.
Pundit is like a guru, example "he is pundit/guru of ITES" (guru & pundit ,both words are from india)
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