IP Democracy: Creating an Internet TV Ecosystem

Several players in the emerging Internet TV sector took significant steps forward in the past week. Given the embryonic stage of this potentially huge and important market space, its worth keeping track of all these pioneers, each of which is likely to provide valuable lessons for anyone seeking an economically viable place in tomorrow’s television ecosystem.

Yesterday, DAVE.TV (Distributed Audio Video Entertainment Television) launched a public beta of its new “Internet broadcasting service,” which is now available for download at www.dave.tv. This comes shortly after Veoh Networks’ beta release of its Internet TV software (for more on Veoh, see this article I wrote a few weeks ago after speaking with Dmitry Shapiro, the company’s founder, and getting a demo of the Veoh user interface [free registration required]).

Then there’s Akimbo’s announcement early this week that it will begin supporting “download to own” capabilities, including the ability to burn content to DVDs. Another profit-seeking player worth watching in this space is Brightcove, which remains largely in stealth mode, but has more than a dozen job listings posted on its web site. Anchored more in the non-profit sector are Open Media Network, Ourmedia.org and Torrentocracy. And there’s TotalVid, which is mainly targeting young males with an initial content selection heavily weighted toward extreme sports.

Our hats are off to these and other pioneers, both large and small, who are working to create the technical and business infrastructure to support more accessible and decentralized (and economically viable) video production and distribution.

Posted by Mitch Shapiro on September 21, 2005 3:43 PM to IP Democracy