Logicbank Media

Silvio Scaglia, the Italian telecoms entrepreneur behind Fastweb and CEO of e.Biscom, is several months away from launching Babelgum, a global internet television service.

Milan-based e.Biscom is already funneling feature films and television shows — in addition to conventional Web and phone services to PCs and TVs in Milan, Rome, Florence, Naples, Bologna and Turin.

Babelgum, the latest attempt to profit from the boom in online video, promises to combine “the lean-back experience of traditional TV with the interactive and social power of the internet”.

The advertising-supported service will offer a free, personalised, full-screen video service to PC users.

The test launch, expected in March, will see Mr Scaglia in direct competition against the founders of Skype, who are developing an internet protocol television service which recently launched as “Joost” after being codenamed the “Venice Project”.

“When I started work on this a year and a half ago I was afraid we’d end up with five [competing IPTV services],” Mr Scaglia says. “The fact it’s still two probably gives us a good lead.”

NewTeeVee argues in its preliminary review of the service that while the Babelgum feels a lot like watching TV, and has a slick and straightfoward interface:

“What Babelgum lacks right now is a compelling differentiator — it needs to offer better content, better features or better technology than Joost and any other upstarts if it wants to win.”

The winners in this space may be those services best able to sign a significant amount of content partners, perhaps by affording them some sort of copyright protection, in order to offer a compelling service to a captive community.

In Babelgum’s case, content protection is accomplished through unspecified DRM and due to the fact that the content is free. Babelgum makes its pitch to content providers based upon security, distribution, and the ability to monetize content on behalf of the producer.

Babelgum seeks to provide a new venue for producers of high-quality professional content to reach the truly global audience of potential viewers.

With more than 300 million broadband users worldwide, even niche content – especially if it’s good – can find an audience that rivals or exceeds the mainstream TV audience in any local market.

“Babelgum’s breakthrough technology means the content is easy for users to see in high-quality video streaming and there is usually no distribution cost to the content owner. So it is really an ideal platform for content owners to serve directly the Long Tail of viewers’ interests not addressed by today’s broadcasting television networks.”

Source: FT

U.S. authorities detained two former directors and founding shareholders of NETeller Plc.  Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre were detained on Monday while travelling separately in the United States, NETeller said, becoming the latest victims of the U.S. crackdown on Internet gaming.

The two former directors and founding shareholders of Neteller, a British online money transfer company, have been charged in the United States with laundering billions of dollars in illegal gambling proceeds.

Canadians Stephen Lawrence, 46, and John Lefebvre, 55, were arrested on Monday, in the U.S. Virgin Islands and in Malibu, CA, respectively, and were charged in Manhattan federal court with conspiring to transfer funds with the intent to promote illegal gambling. U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said that both men face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Neither Lawrence nor Lefebvre had any current connection to the company other than as shareholders according to statements released by NETeller.

Shares in the Isle of Man-based company, which has grown fast with the rapid rise in online gambling, closed at 176 pence on Monday, valuing it at around 211 million pounds ($415.4 million). The shares have fallen 60 percent since early September, hit
by the arrests in the United States of executives from British companies involved in online sports betting and the passage in October of a U.S. law barring banks from transactions involving Internet gambling. 

NETeller indicated that it had requested the suspension of trading in its shares.

Source:   Reuters

Joost™ is a new way to watch TV, free of the schedules and restrictions that come with traditional television. Combining the best of TV with the best of the internet, Joost™ gives you more control and freedom than ever before – control over what you watch, and freedom to watch it whenever you like. We’re providing a platform for the best television content on the planet – a platform that will bring you the biggest and best shows from the TV studios, as well as the specialist programs created by professionals and enthusiasts. It’s all overlaid with a raft of nifty features that help you find the shows you love, watch and chat with friends, and even create your own TV channels.

Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have been talking about the idea behind Joost™ for a long time – even before their last venture, Skype, was born. But to make it work, they needed the right combination of factors – widespread broadband and powerful computers in particular. In early 2006, the time was right. Gathering the world’s best engineers, web gurus and media visionaries, they started work under the code name of The Venice Project™ – and now, after much fretting and polishing, that work is ready for public viewing.

Source: Joost

Today, the company formerly known under the code name The Venice Project has revealed its official brand, “Joost™.” Currently available in private beta testing, Joost combines the best of TV and the best of the Internet by offering viewers a unique, TV-like experience enhanced with the choice, control and flexibility of Web 2.0.

Co-founded by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, Joost fills a critical gap in the online video entertainment arena. Joost is powered by a secure, efficient, piracy-proof Internet platform that enables premium interactive video experiences while guaranteeing copyright protection for content owners and creators.

“People are looking for increased choice and flexibility in their TV experience, while the entertainment industry needs to retain control over their content,” said Fredrik de Wahl, chief executive officer of Joost. “With Joost, we’ve married that consumer desire with theindustry’s interests.”

Joost is the first global TV distribution platform, bringing together advertisers, content owners and viewers in an interactive, community-driven environment. Joost can be accessed with a broadband Internet connection and offers broadcast-quality content to viewers for free.

“We’ve received positive and constructive feedback from our early beta-testers and are now at a stage where we’re ready to reveal our true brand,” said de Wahl. “The Joost name has global appeal, embodies fun and energy, and will come to define the ‘best of TV and the best of the Internet’”.

Joost™ provides a new way of watching TV that combines the best of full-screen television entertainment with online interactive and community benefits to bring an unprecedented selection of video content to viewers anytime, anywhere. Joost is based on a state-of-the-art, secure, peer-to-peer streaming technology.

Source: Joost Press Release

It’s the beginning of the end for TV as we know it.

Amid iPhone madness, many may have missed the invention that could kill cable. Last week, Apple released AppleTV, a tiny white box that connects the shows and movies you’ve downloaded from the computer, and wirelessly transmits them to your TV screen.

No longer will you have to pay a monthly fee to your cable company to watch your favourite show. Apple’s iTunes has made it possible to download an episode of a TV show for about $2, keep it stored on your computer and watch it whenever you want. It’s a blow to the cable networks, which offer services that are often expensive and bloated – hundreds of channels, thousands of shows and nothing to watch.

Source:  TheStar.com

The mobile phone  can no longer simply make and receive telephone calls, but must be a multi-faceted digital tool.  Mobiles are increasingly used in a multitude of ways: as still and video cameras; as instant messenging clients; as multimedia devices capable of playing audio files or FM radio and viewing mobile video or TV; and, as portable computers capable of running third party programs, with integrated personal organizers, and ability to access to MS Office documents.

The latest trend in mobile technology is an integrated FM transmitter which allows for wireless broadcasting of music stored on the phone through a radio. Pioneered by LG on its new Fusic phone, the feature eliminates the need for adapter kits designed to get your phone music pumping through your car or home stereo system.

Source:  Robert Cribb

CBS Corp. president and CEO Leslie Moonves unveiled a partnership with technology company Sling Media during his Consumer Electronics Show keynote address Tuesday that allows users to share their favorite entertainment content in an instant.

Called Clip+Sling, the application gives Slingbox customers the power to grab short segments of programming and share them with their “digital community” directly from live or recorded television.

Source:  CBS Teams With Sling

Cingular, the No. 1 U.S. mobile carrier, which built up its market presence with billions of dollars over the past few years, will see its brand replaced by AT&T’s starting this coming week..

AT&T took full control of  Cingular with its $86 billion purchase of BellSouth last month.  In the marketing campaigns first stage, which launches on this Monday, Cingular’s orange logo of a bouncing jack will co-exist with the AT&T globe logo on everything from television ads to sales uniforms and monthly bills.

“We did not enter that decision lightly,” Wendy Clark, vice president of advertising at AT&T, said in an interview. “We came to understand that consumer customers and business customers alike are looking for a single provider. We heard it so consistently across the marketplace.”

AT&T ‘s name and logo will eventually completely replace Cingular in a process expected to take several months  The exact timing will be determined as more customer feedback comes in, Clark said.  Cingular built up a reputation among younger customers who may not easily associate with the AT&T brand. 

Although, AT&T had indicated that the re-branding was a part of its strategy, as reported by Adweek, the announcement still appears strange given the recent announcement of Apple’s iPhone device which is exclusively linked to Cingular through a multi-year exclusive deal.

Source: CNET

A Skype executive told Reuters that the company has no plans to release a Skype client for mobile phones in the near future. While the company has signed a deal with British mobile provider “3″ to offer a mobile version of its software, it is reliant on the fact that “3″ offers a flat rate for data access, something no other carrier is currently offering.

Until we see more flat rate data plants, it’s unlikely that Skype will release any kind of mobile verssion of its software. Eric Lagier, the company’s hardware and software business development chief, indicated that the decision is partly based on ensuring customers do not run up high data bills.

“We don’t want to be in a situation where we say: ‘Skype is free’ and then at the end of the month the user gets this huge broadband bill,” he told the news service.

Despite its reservations, Skype may be forced to act by its competitors. UK-based Truphone, has already released software that allows users to place VOIP calls on WI-FI enabled Nokia mobile phones. The Nokia phones act as a normal mobiles, using a service providers cell network, until the encounter a WI-FI hotspot. Nokia recently announced new WI-FI phones at the CES show in Las Vegas.

MTV Networks and youth-oriented Amp’d Mobile announced Wednesday that they plan to develop original episodic shows exclusively for the Amp’d phone.

The agreement builds on two previous projects: “Lil’ Bush: Resident of the United States,” an animated series originally produced for Amp’d Mobile and now being adapted for Comedy Central later this year; and mtvU’s “Sucks Less, With Kevin Smith,” which appears on Amp’d and features filmmaker Kevin Smith teaching the first-ever mobile media production class at UCLA.

Other details of the deal, including how many mobile series the companies will create or what their subject matter will be, remain unclear.

Programming being developed through the new partnership may appear on any of MTV’s channels on Amp’d including MTV, mtvU, VH1, Comedy Central, Spike and Logo. The original mobile shows are not expected to carry any advertising, according to an MTV spokesman.

Source:  MediaPost