14 DAY TRIAL // Although no official positions were taken on the matter Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the creators of Kazaa and Skype, are said to debut an Internet venture for online video distribution. TV shows, feature length films and various other heterogeneous video materials will find their way onto user desktops via a new software that the duo is building under The Venice Project umbrella. Software developers in NY, London and Venice are hard at work on the project whose release date is as yet still unknown. Speculations surrounding the matter speak of negotiations in the works with all major TV networks, but specific details concerning an agreement are not available at this time.
Both Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis embark on the new initiative after having set their mark on the Internet community with their former projects Kazaa and Skype. The file-sharing network Kazaa was acquired by Sharman Networks while Skype, the peer-to-peer PC phone service was purchased in 2005 by Ebay for $2.6 billion in cash and stock and an additional $1.5 billion in bonuses due by 2009.
The Venice Project is likely to face hard competition from CinemaNow, Brightcove, Bittorrent, You Tube, Veoh, Video Egg, Amazon Digital Video and other providers of similar services over a market that is estimated to reach just over 3 billion dollars by 2010.