Babelgum

Filed in archive Internet TV on May 14, 2007

CNNMoney.com has a story about a startup called Babelgum I thought interesting to pass along with a few comments.

Briefly, Babelgum is an Internet TV company (still in beta) that works because of peer-to-peer file sharing technology. It is similar to what Joost and BitTorrent offer. Note: I keep up with this space because it is interesting but also because I suspect that Google and Microsoft will try similar strategies by 2009 but with the objective of becoming your cable television provider via the Internet.

For any of these companies to succeed as businesses, access to quality content is of paramount importance. Joost recently has been signing content deals with heavyweights like Viacom, CBS, and Time Warner.

But Babelgum plans to focus more on videos by "professionals" and not the user-generated content like cats playing a piano that has helped make Google's YouTube subsidiary an online video juggernaut.

To that end, Babelgum is hoping to attract buzz in the next few months through a deal it has inked with director Spike Lee to make Babelgum the exclusive online video home of a new Lee short film called "Jesus Children of America."

Babelgum has ambitious plans and it will face some tough competition. Still, having a billionaire backer certainly helps.