The Internet and media worlds are awhirl today about this Business Week scoop on a new video venture apparently being formed by Kazaa and Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. Code-named “The Venice Project,” the venture is developing software for distributing TV shows and other kinds of video over the web.
The Project is snapping people to attention because of its co-founders — Zennstrom and Friis have a track record for creating disruptive technologies that alter the course of the media and communications world. Zennstrom and Friis, who technically work for eBay after selling their Skype VoIP venture last fall to the online trading giant for $4.1 billion in total compensation, have, according to the piece, assembled teams in a half-dozen cities, including London, New York and Venice. It’s not clear if eBay is involved in the effort, although it sounds like the company would be an investor of sorts.
The venture is also reportedly attempting to work out deals with TV networks in order to offer a legit service, unlike Kazaa, which was much-despised by the music industry.
This news no doubt sends shivers down the spines of cable and satellite operators, who already fear that the broadband Internet is turning into a video bypass platform. As the Business Week article and other observers have noted, Zennstrom and Friis are entering a market already loaded with web-video distribution tech start-ups, including BitTorrent, BrightCove, Veoh and VideoEgg, just to name a few.
Still, the pair’s track-record at creating havoc, and the high-profile this venture will receive, gives “The Venice Project” the ability to create some momentum toward accelerated web distribution, and that can’t be good for traditional distributors. As John John Paczkowski at Good Morning Silicon Valley put it:
Still, if anyone can pull something like this off, its Zennstrom and Friis, who’ve built their career on upending the traditional communications and media establishments.
Cynthia Brumfield at 3:44 PM|Comments(0)
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