Hands on with The Venice Project -- P2P TV from the creators of Skype

While Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis might've gotten a bit more respecting of IP over the years, it looks like they still haven't lost their knack for software design and industry disruption. Om Malik over at his GigaOM pad just go his hands on the latest from that intrepid Skype duo: The Venice Project. The basic gist of the app is to act as a distribution platform for next-gen TV, with P2P underpinnings borrowed and improved from Kazaa and Skype. Resolution is near the quality of standard TV, but with bandwidth use at around 250MB per hour, ISPs aren't going to be incredibly stoked about this one. Right now Venice is still in beta, but Om had plenty of love for the simple setup, slick design and ease of use, and while there's a little bit of channel-change lag right now, kinks like that should be ironed out before launch, making for a snappy online TV experience with the already "stunning and crisp" visuals. Unfortunately, it all comes down to content in the end, and there seems to be little of that at the moment, and no major prospects have been unveiled as of yet. A functional, protected and revenue-sharing platform could be just what doctor ordered for media companies looking to break into the currently fragmented market of online TV, but it looks like Niklas and Janus will need quite the winner of an offering, along with some Skype leverage (a bundle, perhaps?) to make this new player ubiquitous enough to succeed.

[Jonathan Keim @ Dec 21st 2006 4:49PM]

Man, does skype have a stock symbol? This sounds like a great 5 year stock.

[Brad @ Dec 21st 2006 4:52PM]

If the ISPs take part in this project, proper implementation would dramatically reduced their external bandwidth. They could have servers act as supernodes which either proxy the shows (lots of storage...useful for popular shows) or direct customers to fellow customers (ie: subnet-local peer-to-peer) who are hosting the desired file. Keeping as much bandwidth usage within one's own network would be highly desirable for ISPs.

Basically, if I were an ISP, I'd start working with these guys immediately. It would definitely be in my interest, both on a financial and geek-acceptance level. Alas, I do not work for an ISP.

[Sam @ Dec 21st 2006 4:55PM]

Sounds similar to the Democracy player.

[kevin @ Dec 21st 2006 5:00PM]

ppstream and pplive have be around and working well for years.

of course, the legitimacy of the sources of the contents is questionable.

but why complain, when you can watch all the matches from World Cup?

[jalapeno @ Dec 21st 2006 5:38PM]

Jonathan Keim: Skype is owned by Ebay, I doubt this new venture will be part of Skype, might be a separate company.

[Jonathan Keim @ Dec 21st 2006 6:56PM]

I'm not a long term investor myself. I'm actually more of a penny trader. I just thought that maybe skype was a small company trading on pinks or OB

[LTM @ Dec 21st 2006 9:19PM]

MY ISP would shit a brick if I was sucking down their bandwidth at 250mb an hour. They'd probably send a hitman after me for that kind of usage.

[Nikita @ Dec 21st 2006 11:26PM]

Does anyone have any invite tokens they could share?
e-mail: [e-mail]

[Dustin @ Dec 22nd 2006 1:24AM]

Gah, 6 GB a day? pffft.. nothin'

I want 6 GB in half an hour!! HD-DVD live streamin' baby!

[Bob @ Dec 22nd 2006 6:19AM]

Does anyone have a Venice Project beta tester token? I would absolutely love to test this product as viidoo is not so hot. Email me if you do. bobbycharles at gmail.

[Steve Elfrink @ Jan 10th 2007 2:44PM]

I will just add my two cents...
I just started beta testing the program today and I would have to say that I am quite impressed. I think the app will be a winner. The team of Zennstrom and Friis has definitely got a proven track record. Overall the app rocks - content will be key.
Steve from www.thewebsavant.com

[Mike Something @ Jan 12th 2007 3:18AM]

i just started testing this app about an hour ago and people, i have seen the future! if the bandwidth, content, and implementation challenges are addressed successfully this shit could be freakin huge.

just pray to god that ebay doesn't get its grubby paws on any part of it. trust me, they would find a way to screw it up.

[jd @ Jan 17th 2007 9:09PM]

Likewise can someone send me a joost invite as well jdgeier at gmail dot com

[jnjyat @ Mar 16th 2007 3:27PM]

Would some one please send me an invite token? I would like to experience this program; its very exciting stuff. Thanks for your time, jim